THE Scottish Government has been praised for its quick action to prevent the NHS becoming overwhelmed by the coronavirus outbreak, but it “could have been better prepared”, the Auditor General has found.

Stephen Boyle said early action during the first wave of Covid-19 in 2020, included increasing intensive care capacity and pausing non-urgent treatment. Service innovation, such as a huge rise in video consultations, also happened within weeks.

Scotland’s initial response was based on preparations for a major influenza pandemic, with three government training exercises carried out in the past five years.

Specific recommendations emerged from these preparations – including the securing of personal protective equipment (PPE) and increasing the “capacity and capability of social care to cope during an outbreak”.

However, Boyle concluded the Scottish Government was “slow” at implementing the improvements in some of the areas that would become a “significant challenge” during the pandemic response.

Failures include a lack of guidance about how Scotland’s social care sector could cope with a flu pandemic, despite being identified as a priority. Although the Scottish Government consulted on some draft advice between July and September 2019, nothing was ever published.

One exercise also “highlighted the need for substantive progress in the area of PPE availability and use across Scotland” with clarity about accessing a stockpile of equipment identified as another priority. Again, no guidance was published.
Boyle said: “NHS staff have shown extraordinary commitment to treating and caring for

Scotland’s people during a pandemic that has highlighted the need to deal with long-standing health inequalities. Getting the full range of health services back up and running will be challenging. But there are clear lessons to be learned from the pandemic, both in how the country could have been better prepared and in the innovation that we’ve seen. It’s essential that these advances are now retained and built upon.”

Labour MSP Jenny Marra, convener of the Public Audit & Post Legislative Committee, said the report had highlighted how crucial it is that positive changes introduced during the pandemic are retained to rebuild the NHS.

She added: “The Scottish NHS has suffered pre-existing financial and operational challenges, a lack of stable leadership and weaknesses in workforce planning for many years. The committee will be keen to hear what lessons are being learnt and how they will contribute to the future success of the NHS.”

Dr Lewis Morrison, chairman of the British Medical Association Scotland, said:  “There is obviously some concern that the Scottish Government could have been better prepared and acted quicker on learning from various planning exercises. This would seem particularly true on doctors’ experiences of PPE - where early concerns needed to be rapidly addressed.”