South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth has commented on the news that more than 120 members of the armed forces will be drafted in to help Scotland’s vaccination programme this week.

The number of vaccinators and nurses for the health boards in the south of Scotland is:

• Ayrshire and Arran: 5 and 1
• Borders: 5 and 1
• Dumfries and Galloway: 5 and 1
• Lanarkshire: 15 and 2
• Lothian: 5 and 1

Colin Smyth said: “It is becoming clear that our health boards are increasingly being overwhelmed and we haven’t yet reached the busiest winter period.

“The Scottish Government has been urged for months now to better support our hard-working local NHS staff but so far there is no sign of a plan to deal with this crisis.

“The military has now been called in to support several health boards across Scotland and while this will hopefully help with the vaccination programme, we need to see a real strategy from ministers.

“Bringing in the military can only ever can only ever be a short term fix. Our NHS staff are working flat out, but there just isn’t enough of them- what we need is a long-term plan for our NHS.”