{"id":784690,"date":"2026-09-27T22:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T22:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/784690\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T22:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T22:52:12","slug":"scottish-nhs-board-declares-critical-incident-amid-extreme-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/784690\/","title":{"rendered":"Scottish NHS board declares critical incident amid &#8216;extreme pressure&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  NHS Grampian said its A&amp;E units at Dr Gray\u2019s Hospital in Elgin and at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/local-news\/aberdeen-news\/?ref=au\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Aberdeen<\/a> Royal Infirmary are facing increased demand.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Shantini Paranjothy, the health board\u2019s executive director on call, said the hospitals are facing a \u201cchallenging weekend\u201d.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  She said: \u201cOur teams are facing a particularly challenging weekend due to the local public holiday on Monday, capacity within our hospitals, and extreme pressures on care within the community.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/news\/26585206.humza-yousaf-reveals-didnt-sue-elon-musk-bitter-feud\/?ref=ed_recent\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Humza Yousaf reveals why he didn&#8217;t sue Elon Musk after bitter feud<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cWe are working alongside key partners including the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/topics\/scottish-ambulance-service\/?ref=au\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Scottish Ambulance Service<\/a>, NHS Tayside and NHS Highland to take all necessary steps, including diverting ambulances only where absolutely necessary, to ensure all patients are safe and well cared for.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cWe are grateful to teams working across the system to support us during this challenging period. We apologise to anyone impacted by longer waits or by having to travel further to receive necessary care.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Paranjothy also said friends and family of patients leaving hospital could help by coming to \u201cdischarge them promptly\u201d so beds are made available for others.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\"\/> (Image: PA)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/topics\/scottish-conservatives\/?ref=au\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Scottish Conservatives<\/a> said the situation is \u201cextremely worrying\u201d.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  North East Tory MSP Liam Kerr said: \u201cThis announcement is deeply concerning and highlights NHS Grampian is at absolute breaking point.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cLives are being put at risk, staff are under intolerable strain, and patients are bearing the brunt of the crisis that is continuing to unfold at the health board.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cIt\u2019s extremely worrying that ambulances are having to be diverted, in some cases hundreds of miles, to the Highlands and Tayside. This simply should not be happening.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cThe turmoil at ARI and Dr Gray\u2019s has been going on for far too long as NHS Grampian approaches yet another winter emergency.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/topics\/scottish-government\/?ref=au\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Scottish Government<\/a> has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NHS Grampian said its A&amp;E units at Dr Gray\u2019s Hospital in Elgin and at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary are&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":784691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-784690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}