Doctors are accusing the Scottish Executive of failing to prepare for the flu infection which is gripping the country.

Several areas are at, or near, epidemic levels and some hospitals are struggling to cope.

Scottish Health Minister Susan Deacon had earlier claimed that the NHS in Scotland was coping with the outbreak.

The British Medical Association says it believes more should have been done by the executive to prepare for the problem.

And it is calling on the executive to introduce a vaccination programme for elderly people to try to prevent a major epidemic in future years.

Edinburgh Royal Infirmary is on red alert after its busiest ever week for medical admissions and hospitals in Aberdeen, Ayrshire and Forth Valley are in a similar situation.

Routine operations have been cancelled to free up beds for flu patients and some hospitals have been forced to convert coronary care units, theatre recovery areas and high-dependency units into temporary intensive care beds.

Dr Kenneth Harden of the BMA said: "We're very unhappy about how the government has prepared for this.

"We recommended to the government over a year ago that they should be looking at a process of immunising all the over 75-year-olds and properly resourcing and structuring a campaign.

"Sadly they have neglected that viewpoint."

However, Ms Deacon said NHS trusts had put contingency plans into action.

Emergency measures

She accepted that hospitals' problems had been exacerbated because many staff had fallen ill but said measures had been put in place to ensure emergency treatment was always available.

She said: "The health service in Scotland is currently experiencing exceptional winter pressures and in some parts of the country unprecedented levels of activity.

"Many hospital staff have themselves been struck by illness but their colleagues are coping impressively.

"Trusts have put into effect their plans to cope with these demands. Their readiness includes tactics like scaling down elective admissions to release beds and fast-tracking the investigation and diagnosis of emergency cases."

Health experts across Scotland have reported large numbers of cases of people suffering from flu symptoms.

'Threshold of epidemic'

Dr David Breen, Dumfries and Galloway Health Board's consultant in public health medicine said the flu situation in the region was on the "threshold of epidemic levels".

He revealed figures which showed 866 people per 100,000 were reporting flu-like symptoms.

To be classed as an epidemic in Scotland, that figure must exceed 1,000 cases per 100,000 head of population.

He said: "These are just approximations of those people who turn up at those practices with flu-like symptoms but that is, in the Scottish definition, very near epidemic level."