Non-urgent care services in Scottish hospitals could be halted by a Christmas surge in Covid cases, a health expert has warned.
Dr Jackie Taylor, president of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, said there would be a "cost" for allowing indoor household mixing on Christmas Day.
Scots were able to meet in groups from up to three households on December 25 despite warnings of more infectious strains of coronavirus arriving in the country.
Dr Taylor did not condemn the Scottish Government’s decision to relax the rules for a day as it allowed people to spend valuable time with loved ones.
Speaking to the BBC, she said: “Everybody has been working over the last nine months to try and ensure that we catch up with the backlog, and we will continue to do that.
“But the harsh reality is that some places that are under pressure, some of that non-urgent work will have to be paused, we have to focus on urgent work and we have to be able to roll out the vaccination programme.”
She added: “There are hidden harms from Covid both in terms of operations and all sorts of other social and mental health and economic harms which we are all very, very aware of.
“As healthcare professionals, we want to be able to treat everyone, we want to ensure everyone gets the best of care, but unless we get a grip of Covid and really get on top of this then we won’t be able to open up the other services again.”
“We have to focus on getting on top of the acute problems we have at the moment.”
On the issue of relaxing rules over Christmas, the health expert said "we have to remember our humanity and how important it is for some people to have had the ability to be with family even for a short time".
She continued: “I think it is absolutely right that the restrictions were only flexed for that day but, inevitably, there will be a cost for this.”
Responding to Dr Taylor's comments, a Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “We are working closely with health boards to ensure the NHS is well prepared for the additional pressures that the season normally brings, as well addressing the risks of a resurgence of coronavirusand EU exit.
“Our winter planning process includes assessing our readiness across all aspects of health and care, including Test and Protect, vaccinations, PPE supplies and the maintenance of essential services, including urgent and emergency.
“Our clinical prioritisation framework will help Boards to manage pressures while still trying to maintain non-Covid-related health care as safely as possible.
“We will ensure that urgent, emergency, maternity and vital cancer services will continue, as they have since the start of the pandemic.”
