The number of hospitalised covid patients in Scotland have roughly doubled over the past 10 days, if that continues again there will be 1000 in a months time. In March, we created capacity in anticipation

2) I'm not sure that has happened, instead we seem to have put our eggs in the basket of making Emergency Departments appointment only. This was never going to solve the problem of bed capacity, despite some positives to this idea

3) ED all over Scotland demonstrated this summerthat with no exit block , they can function really well, even when back up to 90-95% of activity, which they were for most of August.

4) The best way to keep the waiting room empty is to make sure the way out of the ED is not blocked by people waiting for beds, and to ensure that the ED is not the most accessible ( and therefore patient centred) part of health and social care

5) I'd rather have no exit block, and be accessible to vulnerable people, than limit access as the preferred solution to this issue. I've been considering this in great depth over the last 6 months.

6) There are patients who get worse care by coming to the ED, and we need to provide a better service for them. We should do this by making such services easier to access. Signposting them to the right service first time is worth doing, but it won't solve not having enough beds