NICOLA Sturgeon has held what she called "constructive" talks with Matt Hancock about how to resolve a delay in coronavirus testing results.
Problems are centred on the UK Government's Lighthouse Lab network - which includes a facility in Glasgow - and the First Minister said "too many" tests for the virus are not being processed quickly enough.
With testing of care home staff going through these labs Sturgeon revealed consideration is being given to the NHS handling of these.
She said: "The issue is just the constraints on the Lighthouse Laboratory slowing down the test results.
"We hope that will resolve itself but we will continue to monitor this."
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon says Matt Hancock tried to limit Scotland's coronavirus testing
The First Minister spoke to Hancock and Dido Harding, the head of the England's Test and Trace scheme, last night "to seek assurances that Scotland will continue to get fair access to the UK-wide laboratory capacity".
She sought the urgent talks after concerns a backlog in test processing capacity is causing problems accurately reporting the Scottish results.
The First Minister raised the issue again at the Scottish Government's coronavirus briefing today, saying: "I have a concern about the capacity constraints right now with the UK-wide system and for Scotland in recent days.
"This has not been an issue of access to testing slots at regional testing centres or mobile testing units but instead it has been one of access to sufficient Lighthouse Laboratory processing, and it is this that has led to a backlog in the system and longer turnaround times for tests than we we want to be the case.
"As this is a UK-wide system we are not able to resolve this on our own and the issues are impacted by demand elsewhere in the UK."
Her comments came as she announced a total of 267 people have tested positive for coronavirus in Scotland in the past 24 hours, up from 22,749 on Monday.
She also announced the death of another patient who first tested positive for Covid-19 within the past 28 days - taking the total under this measurement to 2500.
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