When there’s only one regional hospital providing acute healthcare services for the whole of the Highlands, it is vital that Raigmore should have the staff, the resources, and the capacity to treat and care for all its patients at the point of need.

But right now, that is not happening, and patients are bearing the brunt.

Last week saw three wards closed due to outbreaks of Covid-19 and scabies, and operations cancelled. Add in an increase in trauma cases, and the result was a lack of available beds. With no beds, operations had to be cancelled.

Just imagine the distress of a delayed operation. Imagine enduring more pain. When will you be seen again? What is the knock-on impact to your health and wellbeing?

It’s not news that NHS Scotland is in extreme crisis; the Covid pandemic put untold stress onto an already under-funded and under-staffed institution, and staff, exhausted and demoralised by an inability, through lack of resources or colleagues, to care for patients to the best of their abilities, began to leave the service in their droves.

Now that the worst of the pandemic seems to be behind us, you’d have hoped we might be picking up. Now that the worst of winter is behind us, you’d have hoped the annual pressure on beds might be easing. Not so. Could recent nursing home closures be contributing to the bed-blocking problem? Or a lack of community carers to allow people to recuperate at home?

Want to see more SNP fails? – Education Matters