THE impact of the rapidly spreading omicron Covid variant on NHS staffing levels is a “huge worry,” the chairman of BMA Scotland has said.

Dr Lewis Morrison said the NHS was facing a “double whammy” of winter pressures and the latest coronavirus variant.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced on Friday that omicron is now the dominant strain of the virus and a “tsunami” was beginning to hit Scotland.

Speaking to the BBC Radio Scotland, Dr Morrison said staff are exhausted by the pressure on them throughout the pandemic. 

He said: “For this to coincide with the usual pressures, which are generally due to people being sick, they’re not the routine work, at this time of year it’s a bit of a double whammy.

“People are really tired now.

“I think if we see a huge number of cases of the new variant it’s highly likely to impact the medical workforce.

“From a hospital perspective, it’s the effect it may have on nursing staff particularly because it’s nurses that keep the wards safe at the most basic level.

“Although we can to some extent redeploy staff, there are real limits on how much we can do that.

“It remains to be seen what proportion of the NHS workforce might end up self-isolating either temporarily or for longer, but that’s got to be a huge worry.”

Concerns were also raised about the number of people who could be in hospital in a short timeframe, with a suggestion that the levels of infection in Scotland are rising at extreme speeds — with nearly 6,000 positive cases recorded on Saturday.

A spokesperson for the First Minister said she emphasised the “extreme urgency of the crisis” for businesses.