Five independent hospitals are supporting NHS Scotland with elective care from this week, to ensure clinically urgent patients can continue to be seen and treated.

The additional support is in addition to the extra capacity already being provided by NHS Golden Jubilee and NHS Louisa Jordan for a number of elective treatments and outpatient appointments.

Following arrangements set out in the NHS Winter Preparedness Plan, the private sector hospitals will primarily support planned urgent care and cancer treatment, including breast surgery, urology, and gynaecology. This will allow those who require planned urgent elective care to continue to be seen and treated, enabling health boards to concentrate on the front line response to coronavirus and A&E services.

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said: “The additional capacity provided by the independent sector, NHS Golden Jubilee and NHS Louisa Jordan is very welcome, and I am extremely grateful to all staff involved for their continued hard work. The Scottish Government will continue to work closely with Health Boards to ensure those requiring urgent elective and vital cancer care can be seen as quickly and safely as possible.

“Even as we expand our vaccination and testing programmes, the number of Covid patients within our hospitals remains very high – so it is absolutely vital that people continue to stay home, protect the NHS, and save lives.”