Hansard

I am pleased to be speaking in the debate, and I congratulate Jackie Baillie on securing it.

As others have mentioned, the theme of world cancer day 2022 is “close the care gap”. It is about understanding and recognising inequalities in cancer care around the globe and lobbying for improved outcomes and equal treatment for all persons with cancer. I am pleased that the Scottish Government has a commitment to improve cancer services across our country, including establishing a new fast-track diagnostic cancer centre at Dumfries and Galloway royal infirmary in Dumfries.

The Covid pandemic had, and continues to have, a direct impact on cancer services, and I look forward to seeing how that can be improved as we move out of the pandemic. However, we do not have to look too far from home to find inequality in cancer care. In my South Scotland region, some patients are not receiving equal treatment, and I am pleased that my colleague highlighted the issues that I am about to address.

In Dumfries and Galloway, 1,135 people are currently living with cancer, and around 530 people lose their lives to cancer each year. Dumfries and Galloway is a large rural region—from Canonbie in the east to Kirkconnell in the north, Stranraer in the west to Whithorn in the south Machars—and we also have many challenges with the delivery of cancer services.

Since my election to Parliament, I have been actively lobbying for change to current cancer pathway arrangements for the region. Currently, although we in D and G are in the south-west of Scotland, we are not in the West of Scotland Cancer Network. NHS Dumfries and Galloway is part of the South East Scotland Cancer Network, which means that patients, particularly those who are in the west of the region and Wigtownshire and require more complex treatments and radiotherapy, must often travel north-east to Edinburgh for treatment. That is a 260-mile round trip from Stranraer, which can cause distress and discomfort, and exacerbate the negative effects of cancer treatment.

After continuous campaigning by local residents and elected members, including my efforts over a five-year period and those of colleagues across the chamber, and by the Galloway community hospital action group, which includes a campaigner who has highlighted the issue for more than a decade, in 2019 NHS Dumfries and Galloway agreed to change the existing arrangements so that a more flexible approach that was focused on patient choice could be taken to people’s treatment destination.

However, constituents are concerned that very little progress has been made, and that patients are still being asked to travel to Edinburgh, without even being offered the choice of going to Glasgow for radiotherapy and other treatment. I understand the pressures that the pandemic has caused, but we are talking about a long-standing situation that the former health secretary said that she would help to improve. Similarly, in July last year, I was told by the current health secretary that NHS Dumfries and Galloway’s cancer pathway arrangements would be addressed as part of the Scottish Government’s modernising patient pathways programme. I have spoken to a few people in order to progress matters, but I have not had any response from the modernising patient pathways programme. I will continue to pursue the issue.

I ask the cabinet secretary to provide a commitment that I will receive an update on the work that has been undertaken regarding cancer pathway arrangements across NHS Dumfries and Galloway. I also ask the Scottish Government to impress upon the health board the importance of the work on cancer pathways being carried out immediately so that patients in the south-west of Scotland can be offered a choice about whether to be treated in Glasgow or Edinburgh, depending on their preference.

I welcome the debate, the work that the Scottish Government has done and the opening of the fast-track cancer diagnostic centre in Dumfries, and I reiterate the need for action to bring about equality with regard to cancer pathways for patients across Dumfries and Galloway.