Health chiefs in Ayrshire and Arran have been ordered to review discharge plans to see if hospital patients can be sent home sooner as the NHS continues to come under “severe” pressure, Nicola Sturgeon said.

NHS boards aross Scotland have until the end of this month to review their discharge plans, the First Minister added.

Ms Sturgeon spoke of her concerns that accident and emergency waiting times remain “far higher than they should be”, saying these have been exacerbated by capacity issues at hospitals.

She also told journalists at a Scottish Government briefing in Edinburgh that the current pressures on the NHS “are having an adverse impact on too many” patients.

However, she said some of those pressures had eased slightly, saying the situation in A&E departments was “stabilising” while calls to NHS24 are down on the previous week.

Despite this, the health service is still under “intense” pressure, with Ms Sturgeon saying the Scottish Government “remains focused” on helping the health service navigate the crisis.

She said: “Despite some very initial indications of a very slight easing of some winter pressure in the past week, hospital occupancy is still very high at this stage.

“In summary, therefore, pressure remains intense but we do hope to see a further easing of it in the weeks ahead.

“And of course we remain focused on supporting the service to address these pressures.”

To tackle the problems the Scottish Government last week announced an additional £8 million to buy care home beds, in a bid to free up spaces in hospitals.

This week she said health boards are now being “asked to review before the end of January all discharge plans in acute and community hospitals to identify patients who should be discharged more quickly”.

This action could “help resolve any issues that may be preventing their discharge from hospital”, the First Minister added.

In line with this, Ayrshire's hospitals have opened all available beds, put non-priority surgeries on hold for three weeks as of January 9, and encouraged families to consider temporary "alternative care" plans for their loved ones.

Read More: NHS Ayrshire and Arran: Hospitals reach full capacity as crisis mounts

With three health boards – including Ayrshire and Scotland’s largest NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde – also having paused elective surgeries, Ms Sturgeon said work was being done to increase capacity for elective surgeries to minimise the knock-on pressure on waiting times.

Chief medical officer Sir Gregor Smith said the government continued to keep a close eye on infection numbers for flu and coronavirus in care homes.

Following last week’s announcement, the group Care Home Relatives Scotland had voiced concern there would be increased infections in care settings, leading to homes being closed to visitors.

These concerns come as care homes throughout Ayrshire have said they are struggling with "increases in demand" and subsequent delays and changes to services.

Sir Gregor said: “We’re now seeing that picture beginning to stabilise as some of the pressures in terms of community infections are beginning to stabilise as well.”

Read More: System delays as Ayrshire care services overwhelmed by NHS crisis