THE Health Secretary is set for crucial talks with council bosses about the need to dramatically increase coronavirus testing in the district.

Jeane Freeman was responding to a plea from local authority chief executive Aubrey Fawcett, who had asked for urgent action on capacity.

In a letter sent to the government, Mr Fawcett set out the difficulties facing the district.

The death rate stands at 13 per 10,000 of the population, the worst in the whole of the country and more than twice the figure for Scotland as a whole.

Mr Fawcett wrote: "It has been well established that testing plays a vital role in establishing who has the virus and helping to bring it under control.

"Concerns have been raised about access to testing for essential and key workers and the wider community who are not covered under the NHS/care worker testing programme."

He also highlighted how Inverclyde has been identified as the authority with the largest local share of deprived areas, adding: "Access to private vehicles and engagement with home testing facilities are likely to be significant issues in enabling testing to be as effective as it could be.

"In addition there is no facility for general community testing to help identify hotspots in the spread of Covid-19."

The council wants the government to 'open up' the health and care staff testing unit in Port Glasgow to local people with transport issues, to avoid the longer journey to the Glasgow Airport swabs site.

They have also suggested mobile units or new additional sites which could check those from vulnerable groups and neighbourhoods to help prevent and control community spread.

The Scottish Government has now agreed to hold talks on the request.

A spokesperson said: “The Health Secretary would be happy to discuss this matter further with the chief executive of Inverclyde Council to see what more we could do.

"However, to address this issue we have continued to build our testing capacity in Scotland over the past few months."

The Scottish Government also highlighted a range of support they have put in place for the area, with £1.3m for the Scottish Welfare Fund so far, £749,000 in hardship funding and £565,000 from the Food Fund, as well as support for local third sector organisations responding to community need.