The poor condition of the emergency helicopter landing pad at Western Isles Hospital in Stornoway is due to be tackled.
A recent test touch-down of the modern Airbus H145 Scottish Air Ambulance helicopter highlighted an upgrade of the helipad is required.
The bad state of the landing area means that vital time could be lost in rushing critically ill patients to mainland hospitals.
Stretchers risk getting stuck in the soft grass landing area by the Stornoway hospital, the main medical facility in the Western Isles, it has emerged.
A reinforced concrete area is now considered as the best solution
The Western Isles is the second biggest user of air ambulances.
NHS Western Isles Chief Executive, Gordon Jamieson, said they will look at how best to improve the landing pad.
Mr Jamieson said: “I will be speaking to Pauline Howie, the chief executive of the Scottish Ambulance Service to see what we can do in terms of upgrading the helicopter pad.”
The new H145 Helicopters are due to come into operational service for patients this week.
Mechanical problems arose with the ambulance helicopters during courtesy visits of west coast islands earlier this month.
On two different days, the brand new Airbus H145 failed to start properly forcing a specialist engineer to be flown to the islands for repairs.