Here’s what the Health Secretary said today:

Part of the work we’re undertaking is in terms of looking at bed capacity across the whole estate and doubling our intensive care beds, and ensuring we have the right trained staff and the right equipment in order to be able to do that. We will continue to look at what more can we do to maximise our capacity to respond to this. At the same time, we’re taking the action to flatten that peak so that we give ourselves the best possible chance to do so.

This is in the Herald report but the headline and opening statement seek to paint a less confident less competent picture:

Coronavirus: Scotland ‘needs to double intensive care beds.’ THE number of intensive care beds in Scotland should be doubled to help the NHS cope with a surge in critically ill coronavirus patients, the Health Secretary has said.

This is misleading. Pandemic preparation exercises have been ongoing in NHS Scotland for at least ten years. The Health Secretary did not say these words as McArdle claims because NHS Scotland knows how to and is capable of increasing capacity in intensive care quickly and smoothly because it has practised doing so many times before.

The choice of language by Mcardle is dishonest, scare-mongering and regardless of her intent, undermining of the reputation of the Health Secretary and the Scottish Government.