NHS Borders has paused routine operations again to combat the “significant pressures” currently facing the health board.

More than 2,000 cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in the Borders in the last seven days, with 34 patients who have the virus being cared for in hospital.

As a result NHS Borders has introduced a number of measures in an attempt to alleviate the pressure on its services.

Medical Director of NHS Borders Dr Lynn McCallum said: “Cases of COVID-19 in the community are rising sharply, and we expect this to continue over the coming weeks. Given how contagious Omicron is and the high numbers of people requiring care there are significant pressures on our services; particularly when we factor in staff absences due to the virus.”

All routine operations scheduled for the rest of this week have been paused, according to the health board.

Everything possible will be done so that all urgent, cancer and emergency surgeries will continue.

An NHS Borders spokesperson said it is “likely that we will need to continue to pause routine operating”, with a decision to be made “as quickly as possible”.

Meanwhile, only essential visits to all NHS Borders sites will be permitted for at least the next fortnight to protect staff and patients from Omicron.

Dr McCallum said: “To make sure that we are able to continue vital services during this challenging time, it has been necessary to make a number of difficult decisions such as pausing routine surgery and moving to essential visiting.

“General Practitioners and other primary care providers may also need to adjust the service they provide so that they can prioritise appointments and access for the most urgent and vulnerable patients.

“We are truly sorry to those that these decisions affect. However we hope that you understand that patient and staff safety is our top priority, including providing the highest quality of care and support. We can assure you that we are doing everything possible to keep our patients and staff safe, whilst keeping the situation under constant review.

“We request that all members of the public, whenever they are interacting with health services, take Lateral Flow Device (LFD) tests prior to attending health care settings as LFD tests help detect Covid-19 which enables us to limit the virus spreading.

“We would also ask that the public recognise that our staff are currently working under significant pressure and we are therefore very grateful for your co-operation and patience at a time when, despite our staff’s best efforts, we are not able to provide the normal quality of service that we would expect to do.

“We would like to thank our exceptional staff for their incredible ongoing efforts to keep our patients as safe as possible, at this very challenging time.”

A letter is being issued to all inpatients, and those who are receiving or waiting for social care, advising of the further steps which may be needed to ease the pressure on NHS Borders.

The spokesperson added: “For people in hospital this sets out how we will be looking for their co-operation to agree an interim move for a period of time if they are waiting for care and this is not currently available.

“This is essential if we are to maintain capacity in our hospitals to admit new patients who require hospital care.

“We are also asking for family members or carers to consider whether they are able to provide support for things like eating and dressing while relatives are in hospital. This will help staff to undertake clinical tasks.”

Examples of essential visits include:

  • A birth partner supporting a woman during hospital visits and throughout the maternity pathway
  • A person receiving end-of-life care – we expect this to be defined as flexibly and compassionately as possible, to support patients at the end of life spending meaningful time with their loved ones in their final days, weeks or months
  • To support someone with a mental health issue, or dementia, or a learning disability or autism, where not being present would cause the patient to be distressed
  • To accompany a child in hospital
  • In general situations when someone is receiving information about life-changing illness or treatments
  • In these and other similar situations where support from another person is essential for advocacy and wellbeing, family support should be facilitated