Routine operations such as hip and knee replacements would be cancelled to free up hospital beds in a peak coronavirus outbreak, but health bosses in Scotland insisted that cancer treatment would not be affected.

The Scottish Government said a worst case scenario could see 170,000 people hospitalised with coronavirus - correcting its previous estimate of 200,000.

Professor Jason Leitch, the national clinical director in charge of patient safety and planning in NHS Scotland, said Scotland’s healthcare infrastructure could cope but some surgery would have to be cancelled in the event of a rapid outbreak.

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He added that managing a spike in Covid-19 cases, the new form of coronavirus, will not take priority over caring for the “very sick”.

Mr Leitch said: “We see half a million people every year in outpatient clinics so if we can slow the virus down and spread it out over a long time, we can absolutely cope with those numbers.

“Clearly, things are going to need to change if we get a big peak in numbers

"That might mean the cancelling of some elective surgery unfortunately if we get a peak, but it won’t happen all across the country at the same time.

“Those with cancer, with chemotherapy, with radiotherapy appointments, with essential cancer surgery or other pieces of surgery, they will go ahead as normal.

“Only in the very, very extreme cases will we even cancel scheduled elective surgery - things that you can put off - but we’re not going to cancel chemotherapy and radiotherapy.”

One Scottish case of the virus has been confirmed so far in Tayside, but the patient has not required hospital care.

In the vast majority of cases symptoms will be mild and similar to a cold, but frail elderly people and those with chronic conditions are more vulnerable.

The World Health Organisation says data from China indicates that around five per cent of all victims will become critically ill.

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said emergency laws passed by Westminster later this month could enable Scotland to roll out emergency measures to protect the NHS.

She said: “The emergency legislation will, for example, allow temporary lifting of some requirements of registration to allow former NHS staff to return to work should they be needed and should they wish.

“The Bill will also enable us to require the mandatory vaccinations for health and social care workers - the flu vaccine - if we consider that the spread of the virus may continue into next year’s flu season.

“Given the projections of staff absences and the pressure on the NHS, we may wish to do all we can to protect both the workforce and patients.”

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Ms Freeman said the new measures - including “potentially extraordinary social-distancing measures, self-isolation and restriction on public events” - would only be used if evidence showed an acceptable balance “between effectiveness slowing the spread and the impact on, for example, the economy”.

It comes as the BMA warned Scotland is facing a “chronic shortage” of doctors, with 480 consultant posts currently lying empty - up nearly 16% year-on-year.

The Royal College of Nursing Scotland also said the number of nursing staff was “simply not keeping pace with the number of people they are expected to care for”, with a 19% spike in vacancies over the past year.

There was also evidence of pressure on beds as figures for January revealed that 1640 patients who had been well enough to leave hospital had not been discharged because they had nowhere to go.

This was up 11% on January 2019 and is the highest since current records began in July 2016. It included hundreds of patients who stayed in hospital three days to two weeks longer than necessary.

NHS Scotland has 13,105 hospital beds in total, with a report in December warning that the NHS needed more intensive care beds to cope with an ageing population.

Oxygen therapy, such as ventilators found in critical care units, is the main treatment for seriously ill coronavirus patients in the absence of a vaccine or antivirals.

Asked whether there were plans to fund additional beds or buy in extra ventilators, a spokesman for the Scottish Government said: “We have the right staffing, resources and equipment in place – and this includes oxygen equipment.

"Our planning will always use the scientific and clinical evidence and so will keep the level of resourcing under constant review.”