Pressure on Forth Valley Royal Hospital saw patients wait in ambulances eight hours

A meeting of NHS Forth Valley’s board heard this week that peak numbers occurred over the weekend of January 4, 5 and 6, when the hospital was treating 91 flu patients, as well as 10 with Covid and six RSV (respiratory syncytial virus).

Director of acute services, Garry Fraser, told members that one in six patients on the site had some sort of respiratory virus, which meant they had to be isolated.

The strain of flu was such that “patients were being ventilated for a couple of weeks at a time”, which led to the intensive care unit being extremely busy.

The illness also meant that many staff were off due to illness and primary care and community services were also affected.

A surge area helped the ICU cope with 24 patients when generally there is a maximum of 16 in the hospital.

The same weekend also saw extreme pressure on FVRH’s Emergency Department.

Mr Fraser told members that over a 36-hour period that weekend, there were at least 90 people waiting to be seen at any given time.

Members also heard that the “absolute volume” of patients resulted in some long waits for Scottish Ambulance Service, with a wait for up to eight hours to offload.

But they were also told that recovery from the height of the pressure was going well, until things were derailed by Storm Eowyn on Friday.

Mr Fraser told members that the pressures on services were being felt across the whole of Scotland and the challenge was not unique to Forth Valley.

“It was an extremely difficult festive period and that affects performance,” he said.

NHS Forth Valley’s chief executive, Professor Ross McGuffie, said that the situation was quickly “decompressed” and numbers had steadied until Storm Eowyn struck.

He said: “Staff have gone above and beyond throughout the festive period, and I’d like to place on record my sincere thanks to all for steering us through what has been an incredibly challenging period.”