PRESSURES on the health service are "going to get worse" over winter, with the demand facing GPs already unsustainable, an NHS doctor and MSP has warned.

Dr Sandesh Gulhane – the Scottish Tories' health spokesman and a practicing GP – said the NHS Louisa Jordan in Glasgow should never have been completely closed down.

He the number of patients he is dealing with has doubled since pre-pandemic times.

Mr Gulhane, who represents the Glasgow region, said the coronavirus pandemic has "shone a light" on underlying problems in Scotland's NHS.

He said there needed to be extra capacity such as field hospitals and accused the SNP of allowing the situation "to spiral horrendously out of control".

Speaking on BBC Scotland's The Sunday Show, he said: "The demand for GPs has never been higher.

"On Monday, I had 80 patient contacts in general practice. That's not safe, that's not sustainable, but it's the level of demand we're facing."

He added: "Pre-Covid you would have about 20 patients in the morning, and you'd have about 15 to 20 in the afternoon.

"And that's sort of the levels that we would want to be working to, so it's almost doubled the demand, and the telephones are ringing off the hook."

It comes after the Scottish Government called in the army to support Scotland's struggling ambulance service. 

Last week, The Herald told how 65-year-old Gerard Brown died following a 40-hour wait for an ambulance after being found collapsed at his Glasgow home.

Mr Gulhane said the Covid crisis had exacerbated existing problems. 

He said: "Things were not rosy before Covid. We had all-time low morale, we had waiting lists that were long, A&E targets – but things have really gone downhill with Covid."

He said Scotland needs to get patients "flowing through the NHS again".

The MSP said a shortage of anaesthetists is a key problem, and argued the Scottish Government should allow consultants to opt in and out of their pension as they are currently being "hit heavily" with tax.

Mr Gulhane was asked if the NHS Louisa Jordan should have shut and whether Scotland should be opening field hospitals. 

He said: "At the time when Louisa Jordan was shut we didn't need that capacity, but it shouldn't have been completely shut down, it shouldn't have been that we couldn't quickly open something up, because winter pressures are coming. 

"We knew winter pressures were coming, and I'm hoping the Scottish Government were doing modelling even at that stage to see what was happening and how bad the winter would be, because at the moment we're living through perpetual winter but it's going to get worse in the winter that we've actually got coming up.

"We need that capacity but we also need the staff to be able to do the work."

The £70 million NHS Louisa Jordan was a temporary facility based at SEC Glasgow, which is set to host the Cop26 climate summit in November.

Mr Gulhane said there was "no plan" from the Scottish Government.

However, he said he did not think restrictions should be brought back "at the moment".

In a statement later, he said: “The huge crisis facing A&E departments has now sky rocketed off the scale which is why there needs to be extra capacity available like field hospitals.

“Patients are waiting an average of six hours after dialling 999 before dying in hospital car parks because they can’t get into A&E.

“The systemic failures caused by this inept SNP Government are costing lives and the situation will only get worse through winter unless urgent action is taken.

“Disaster after disaster continues to happen under the SNP who have no forward planning and have allowed this to spiral horrendously out of control.

“They closed the Louisa Jordan without consideration about the upcoming winter which will be the most challenging Scotland has ever faced.

“Our fantastic NHS staff are being run ragged because of this and need more support sooner rather than later.”