UNIVERSITIES with medical schools are extending Covid tests for a further week.
Glasgow, Edinburgh, St Andrews and Dundee universities confirmed that on-campus lateral flow testing will continue to operate until December 18, when medical students are due to finish their clinical placements.
Aberdeen University has not yet responded to enquiries from the Herald.
It comes after BMA Scotland warned that the previous timetable for lateral flow testing, which was due to end on December 9, could force medical students to end their placements early.
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Nearly 2000 medical students in their third, fourth and fifth years are currently based in hospitals.
Clinical credits are essential to completing their degrees, but many were already forced to cut short their placements in March when the pandemic took off in Scotland.
However, the trade union remains concerned about the lack of Scottish Government guidance for medical students who are living and based at hospitals many miles from campus - such in Lanarkshire or Ayrshire - when travel between local authorities is banned.
Lewis O'Connor, chair of the Scottish student medical committee, said medical students should be allowed to access some form of Covid testing on the NHS as an alternative.
He said he was worried about the risk to public health if clarity is not provided by Government.
He said: "I don't believe students are going to go 'the Scottish Government haven't told me what I should do - I'll just stay at university, in my flat, and I won't return home'.
"They will most likely return home, but because there's no guidance in place they won't go and get a test and they'll just get home whenever they like.
"Which is probably no disadvantage to them because they're young, and if they know no one at home is at risk of experiencing a bad reaction to Covid they're probably not going to be too concerned.
"But obviously they could pass it on to someone else in their town, or on public transport on the way back. So I think it's more of a concern in public health terms actually, that we're not controlling the spread of the virus unfortunately."
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Students have been asked to take two lateral flow tests, three to five days apart. If both are negative they should travel home as soon as possible after the second test - although this leaves international students just days to secure a flight.
If they test positive, and this result is then confirmed by the more accurate PCR test, they should self-isolate for 10 days before returning home.
That means there is also a risk that medical students who test positive, and obey the rules, would not be able to travel home until after Christmas.
Unlike other students, who were advised to stay in their accommodation as much as possible and minimise their social contacts in the two weeks before going home, medical students will have spent weeks in a hospital environment where the risk of exposure to Covid is much higher.
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Mr Connor said they were "quite sure that PPE does do its job, and limits transmission in hospitals", but added: "If [medical students] have got any family members who are at risk, they'll obviously want the piece of mind that they are Covid negative."
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The majority of universities have agreed to continue the student testing programme to support those whose placements extend beyond the original UK pilot deadline of December 9.
"In some cases, students may be able to access testing at a nearer institution where testing is available.
"Students in this position should contact their university to discuss how they can best access testing that suits their particular circumstance.
"For next term, we are again offering asymptomatic testing of students on arrival as part of a staggered return to campus.”
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