The Scottish Conservatives have highlighted “unacceptable delays” for cancer treatment after it emerged that Western Isles patient have to wait nine months.
The 275-day wait in the Outer Hebrides was the second longest in Scotland this year, with a patient in Glasgow having spent 315 days waiting for treatment to begin.
The longest wait in the NHS Highland area was 202 days, the fourth highest in Scotland, compared to 180 days for NHS Grampian, 105 days for NHS Shetland and 75 days for NHS Orkney.
Shadow Health Secretary Miles Briggs said: “This isn’t just a one-off case of a patient having to wait hundreds of days because of a freak set of circumstances.
“Every year patients across Scotland are facing unacceptable delays for vital treatment.
“If a cancer patient is urgently referred by a doctor, they should not have to wait longer than the 62-day target timeframe.
“If anything, with so much at stake, they should be seen to even more quickly.
“This is just another damning statistic which exposes the SNP’s shambolic running of the NHS.
“If the Scottish Government is serious about helping those who need it most, it would sort this situation out as a matter of urgency.”
NHS Western Isles did not respond to a request for comment.