Scottish NHS boards will receive £10 million to improve cancer waiting times, the health secretary has announced.
Humza Yousaf said the money would go towards staff skills, more diagnostic tests and increased working hours.
He visited one of Scotland’s first Early Cancer Diagnostic Centres in Fife on Monday.
READ MORE: 'Ludicrous': Breast cancer survivor's shock at being refused screening appointment 'due to Covid'
The centre, one of three currently in place around Scotland, allows GPs to refer patients with non-specific cancer symptoms onto fast-track diagnostic programmes.
The coronavirus pandemic has led to a backlog in cancer care.
Mr Yousaf said: “Limiting the impact of Covid-19 on cancer patients has been a top priority in all of our planning, with the majority of vital cancer treatments continuing throughout the pandemic.
“Our commitment to finding and treating cancer as early as possible has never been greater.
“The establishment of Scotland’s first three Early Cancer Diagnostic Centres demonstrates this.
READ MORE: Homeless people to be given free e-cigarettes as part of new trial
“We had pledged to open three centres within the first 100 days of this Government, so I’m delighted to say we’ve delivered on that commitment.
“This £10 million will enable boards to further recover and redesign cancer services for patients across Scotland and drive improvements in waiting times.”
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