'Flat out' effort on cancer times

Inverness's Raigmore Hospital hosted a visit by the minister

Medical staff are "working flat out" to reduce waiting times for Highland cancer patients, Public Health Minister Shona Robison has said.

The minister was in Inverness to chair NHS Highland's annual review.

She said the authority was facing a challenge to meet targets on waiting times for urgent referrals.

Ms Robison said she was impressed with facilities at Raigmore Hospital and expected the authority to meet a target on cutting cancer mortality rates.

The nationwide target is to reduce deaths by 20% by 2010.

All health boards, including NHS Highland, must meet that target by the end of this year and we will be talking about that today at some length Shona Robison Public Health Minister

However, she added: "The challenge is meeting the urgent referral target within two months from referral from a GP to treatment.

"All health boards, including NHS Highland, must meet that target by the end of this year and we will be talking about that today at some length."

NHS Highland has failed to meet the government's target to have 95% of cancer patients diagnosed and begin treatment within 62 days.

Board chairman Gary Coutts has previously warned that cancer units could be forced to close if the issue was not resolved.

The problems were illustrated by figures for October and December last year which showed that fewer than three quarters of patients were being seen within the allocated period.

But Ms Robison said she was confident the target would be met within the timescale.

Conservative health spokeswoman and Highlands MSP, Mary Scanlon, said it was essential that action was taken to reduce waiting times.