Forth Valley Royal Hospital: Operations backlog tackled as theatre activity returns to normal

A spike of Covid-19 cases in early January caused high numbers of staff absences, forcing NHS bosses to postpone non-urgent operations for a six-week period.

Their aim was to reduce significant capacity pressures across the site and free up staff to support critical health services.

A total of 343 people had scheduled operations postponed during this period.

Since then 67 have undergone surgery and the rest should take place late this month and into March after around 80 highly skilled and experienced staff returned to their roles.

Day surgery and theatre teams had been assigned to support critical services and provide cover for other areas experiencing staff shortages.

Cathie Cowan, chief executive, said: “This temporary measure helped protect vital emergency, cancer care and other critical health services and ensure patients who were seriously unwell continued to receive the vital care they needed.”

She also paid tribute to staff who had stepped in to support colleagues in what she described as “a very challenging period” for the hospital – and thanked patients.

She added: “I would like to thank local staff and colleagues in primary care, who have worked tirelessly to maintain local services over the last six weeks to support colleagues throughout this very challenging period.

“I would also like to thank local patients whose operations were postponed for their patience and understanding and reassure them that everything possible is being done to reschedule these procedures as quickly as possible.”

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