NHS Dumfries and Galloway facing its "greatest pressures in living memory"

The health board is facing its “greatest pressures in living memory”.

Chief operating officer Julie White warned yesterday: “We are in an unprecedented situation.”

Relatives of hospital in-patients are being asked to provide whatever support they can to facilitate a speedy discharge, and help address major pressures.

Ms White said: “Never in the living memory of health and social care services in Dumfries and Galloway have we been faced with such pressures.

Not with the move to the new DGRI back in 2017, not in the worst of any winters. This is a whole new level of pressure. And we can’t promise that it’s not going to get any worse.”

She said the biggest issue the health board is facing at the moment is the number of people who genuinely require help and support and not enough staff to meet their needs.

“We are doing our best to recruit more staff to support us but the pressure is immediate,” she said.

Ms White added: “To families and friends of loved ones currently in our care, anything you can possibly do to help support the return of that person to their home environment will assist us in ensuring we are then able to help others.

“To be clear, we will always be here to provide treatment and care – but the limits of what we are able to do continue to be stretched to new degrees, and I am extremely concerned.”