Patients forced to England for lifesaving cancer scans

Health Secretary has admitted Scots will have to go south for some treatments, Martin Williams reports

POTENTIALLY life-saving treatment for prostate and neuroendocrine cancers is having to be conducted south of the Border because Scotland does not have the facilities to deal with it, it has emerged.

In June last year, the Scottish Government announced that new prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) scanning technology would be funded by NHS Scotland and provided at four centres across Scotland.

The advanced scans, which use radioactive dye to light up specific regions in the body, were expected to be operational by spring of last year.

Prostate Scotland welcomed the move at the time saying that PSMA scanning in Scotland for men with prostate cancer was a “step forward in helping determine whether prostate cancer has spread or reoccurred”.

But Health Secretary Jeane Freeman has confirmed in a letter that the scanning facilities are not yet in place.

And she has admitted that currently patients requiring these types of advance scans may be referred to other sites in England.

MSP Murdo Fraser, former deputy leader of the Scottish Conservatives, described the lack of available treatment as “an utter disgrace”.

He is calling for urgent action after one patient from Perthshire told of his despair of the current situation, saying: “I feel as if my life is like waiting on a time bomb. It is ridiculous expecting someone to have to travel down to London to get a scan, when there should be an available machine in Scotland.

“I would have to travel to London by sleeper train as I will be getting radiotherapy for the cancer so can’t travel by plane. The cost of the train journey plus a taxi to the hospital and back to the rail station will be around £500 – it is scandalous.”

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in Scotland with one in 10 affected. About 3,400 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year.

The Scottish Government announced the new technology, which provides a more accurate scan for advanced prostate cancer, would improve detection.

Funded by NHS Scotland, it was to be provided at four centres across the country – NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Tayside, NHS Lothian, and NHS Grampian. The PSMA scans would allow for a more accurate diagnosis of possible prostate cancer relapse where the disease spreads after initial treatment. It would also allow clinicians to identify exactly where any follow-up tumours are located, ensuring appropriate treatment.

There are currently five PET/CT scanners in Scotland, including two in Glasgow, and one each in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee. But Ms Freeman said certain types of cancer require scans using different radiopharmaceuticals that are not routinely available in Scotland.

She added that the installation of the required equipment in each scanning site is still ongoing “although there have been some installation delays due to Covid-19”.

“It is anticipated that Edinburgh and Dundee will be ready to go live in early 2021, with Aberdeen following in spring and Glasgow in the second half of 2021,” Ms Freeman said.