Health Secretary Shona Robison has announced £2.85 million to help reduce waiting times for cancer patients.
Ms Robison said the funding would cut waits for diagnostic tests and ensure patients are seen more quickly.
The Scottish Government said discussions were under way with health boards to determine how the money would be most effectively spent.
Ms Robison said: "Our ageing population means that more people are now being diagnosed with cancer.
"More positively, greater awareness has led to more people coming forward to get their symptoms checked. All this means more demand on services and that's a challenge we are ready to meet.
"This investment will support boards to reduce waiting times and ensure that people get a vital early diagnosis so that treatment, if required, can start as soon as possible.
"This will build on our cancer strategy, which is now in its second year.
"Through this we are aiming to improve every aspect of cancer services - prevention, quicker diagnosis and better treatment."
Janice Preston, head of cancer support charity Macmillan in Scotland, said: "Waiting times have been missed for four years in a row, so this announcement is welcome.
"Waiting for treatment to begin is an incredibly stressful time for most people and, in extreme cases, delays can impact outcomes.
"Urgent action is needed to tackle this problem and we look forward to seeing the outcome of this investment."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel