A Lanarkshire doctor's surgery was forced to cancel all routine appointments this week after "unprecedented" levels of COVID-19 cases at the practice.
Stonelaw Practice at Rutherglen health centre sent concerning text messages to patients stating they would be unable to offer any routine appointments, concerning common illnesses and non-urgent situations, until next week.
The news came as coronavirus cases began to surge again across South Lanarkshire as Scotland adjusts to the majority of COVID restrictions being removed.
One local resident who goes to Stonelaw told Lanarkshire Live : "The first message we got simply said it would be emergencies only and that admin staff were off.
"The next day there was another message, saying the practice wasn't able to offer any routine appointments and that we should go to pharmacies instead.
"It just shows how COVID is still there and nowhere near over.
The message stated that the practice had "an unprecedented level of sickness due to Covid19. Although we remain open, we are unable to offer routine appointments this week. Pharmacies will be happy to help."
Almost 6000 (5775) people in South Lanarkshire tested positive for the virus in the week leading up to Thursday (March 17), a six per cent increase on the previous week.
At the same time, test results being reported have dropped, with 129,901 results recorded - a drop of 12 per cent on on the previous seven days, indicating less people are now checking if they have the virus.
Alistair MacKintosh, primary care manager at NHS Lanarkshire, said: "Both community and acute services across Lanarkshire continue to experience challenges as the number of COVID-19 cases have risen steadily over the last few weeks.
“This has had a knock effect to hospital and primary care services including GP services with staff absences due to COVID and increasing patients requiring care.
“The safety of patients and staff is a priority and all necessary actions are being taken to ensure safe and effective patient care and address the current pressures."
Lanarkshire Live previously told how the region's A&E hospitals were also stretched beyond capacity at the moment.
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