It has been revealed that from later this year, NHS Western Isles will be the only health board in Scotland not able to provide a specialist cancer diagnostic service to its residents.
The cytosponge diagnostic service, which helps diagnose types of throat/oesophageal cancers much quicker and closer to home for patients, has been available to all mainland health boards since 2023, is being rolled out to Orkney and Shetland later this year, but not to the Western Isles.
The revelation came in a written answer from Cabinet Secretary for Health, Neil Gray, to a question submitted by Highlands and Islands MSP Tim Eagle.
Mr Eagle said: “I realise the huge pressures on the NHS and cannot thank enough the great work that staff do every day from primary care to hospitals, however equality in health provision is a keystone principle of the NHS so it is disappointing that we seem to be waiting longer in the Western Isles for this very important service than other communities.
“Although islanders are well-used to having to travel for some things it really ought not to include a service like this one, particularly given the chronic problems with the ferry service and concern about dedicated air services from the Western Isles. People shouldn’t be worried about travel arrangements on top of concerns for their health where we can possibly avoid it.
“I hope the Health Secretary will provide details soon about when he expects people in the Western Isles to access this service as his response to my question was notably uninformative about that.”