South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth has renewed his calls for action to help our local NHS, as health and care services struggle as the pandemic continues.

On Friday, East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership released a statement saying that services are “extremely stretched” and that as a result, the partnership was being forced to prioritise the most urgent cases.

NHS Borders has been forced to cancel all scheduled routine operations until 26 September due to Covid-related pressures.

Colin Smyth said: “While most Covid restrictions have now been lifted across Scotland, our NHS is still suffering because of this terrible pandemic.

“Even before Covid, our amazing health service staff were dealing with huge waiting lists but the pandemic has exacerbated that problem and put many clinics, operations and treatments on hold for months.

“As a result, the NHS is being forced to play catch up and we are seeing on a weekly basis that some NHS boards are still being forced to cancel routine operations and clinics.

“I fear that it will take years for the NHS to be able to get back to the waiting time levels we saw before Covid.

“The Scottish Government has been too slow in implementing a recovery plan for the NHS and putting in place the resources needed to get services back up and running. The time for words is long over, we need action.”