Shocking stats showed 999 crews crippled by staff self-isolating, as medics warned unvaccinated young people were putting pressure on hospitals.

Nearly 600 ambulance staff, and nearly 700 firefighters were off for covid-related reasons.

The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) is turning to bank and relief staff to fill shifts while 597 workers were off on Wednesday either with covid or having to isolate.

It said more than 95 per cent of accident and emergency shifts were being filled by bringing in extra workers, while aiming to fill ‘every shift where possible’ through rostered, relief and bank staff as well as paying overtime.

READ MORE: Covid 19: Eight drop-in vaccination clinics open in and around Glasgow

An SAS spokeswoman said: “To ensure we maintain patient safety, we are already working alongside our partner agencies to protect service delivery and staff welfare.

“Accelerated recruitment through our demand and capacity programme continues and will increase the number of new staff to 566 by March 2022.”

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) confirmed it had 696 staff absent on Wednesday.

Ross Haggart, the deputy chief officer of the SFRS, said: “We have robust contingency plans in place to ensure we can continue to respond to emergencies.

"Staffing and availability of appliances are being closely monitored and managed with dynamic solutions to draw on our resources across Scotland to maintain resilience.”

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has the most absences by far of any of the country’s health boards.

There are 1,158 staff off due to covid-related reasons, up from 1,066 in the last week of December.

An NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde spokesman said: “We continue to prioritise emergency, trauma and cancer care alongside the increasing Covid admissions.

“We recognise the increased pressure on both staff and services and are working to ensure support and mitigation as much as possible.

“At all times, the safety and care of our patients is our absolute priority.

“To help deal with current pressures, we have frequent safety huddles throughout the day, which prioritise the need for staff to be moved to support high priority services.”

READ MORE: Glasgow ambulances diverted as A&E admissions soar

NHS Fife said its latest figures showed just under 270 of its staff were absent due to contracting covid or having to self-isolate, and its services were still under ‘significant strain’.

The board said there had been a ‘sharp increase’ in covid patients in hospital, especially among the unvaccinated, and paused non-urgent services to protect emergency and cancer care.

Dr Christopher McKenna, medical director at NHS Fife, said: “Our hospitals are currently extremely busy.

“Not only are our wards very busy, our A&E is very busy, as are the admission areas and our community hospitals.

“Patients are coming into hospital who are extremely unwell with covid, and many of these patients haven't been fully vaccinated.

“Some of these patients are young adults and some of these patients are also pregnant.”

Around four per cent of NHS Lanarkshire’s workforce – about 480 staff – are absent due to covid, although the figure is expected to be even higher once data on staff shortages among medical and dental workers is updated.

Judith Park, NHS Lanarkshire’s director of acute services, said: "We continue to face staffing challenges across health services.

“We are deploying staff from other areas to ensure our services can deliver effective patient care.

"We usually reduce elective activity over the festive period and early January as part of our winter plans and we have taken down some elective lists in some specialities due to staff absences in those teams.”

NHS Forth Valley had more than 230 staff absences due to self-isolation yesterday (Weds).

In a statement, NHS Forth Valley said: “We are doing everything possible to maintain adequate staffing levels and this is being closely monitored to ensure we support the service areas most affected.”

In Ayrshire and Arran, the health board has 188 staff self-isolating at home as a result of testing positive for covid.

Dr Crawford McGuffie, NHS Ayrshire and Arran’s medical director, said there were ‘significant pressures’ across its services in acute, primary and community care.

Dr McGuffie said: “This is an extremely challenging time for many of our staff.”

NHS Lothian said it was unable to provide figures, but Jacquie Campbell, chief officer for acute services at the health board, said staff absences were having a ‘marked impact’.

NHS Borders said its absence rate as of Tuesday was 6.7 per cent, 2.96 per cent of which was covid-related.

In NHS Tayside, the board said its current covid absence rate was 4.9 per cent, with hospital services ‘coping with current demand’.

NHS Highland said around one per cent of its workforce were absent due to covid.

NHS 24 said 279 staff were currently off due to covid, but stressed it always increases its staffing during the festive period.

The service added that over the four-day Hogmanay holiday weekend, its 111 service experienced a call demand of nearly 49,000.

On Monday, there were just over 15,000 calls, making it one of the service’s busiest ever days.