First Minister’s Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at 5:08 pm on 31 October 2024.
At the weekend, the Loganair chief executive said that the flight from Stornoway to Inverness is “difficult to sustain”. That flight is a lifeline service for people who need to access healthcare services that are not available locally. We have already seen patients no longer accepting treatment due to the downgrading of the Uist flights. That would also happen if the Stornoway to Inverness flight were to stop or become less accessible.
I appealed to Scottish ministers to find a solution to the situation with the Uist flight, but nothing has changed. Therefore, I ask the First Minister to intervene personally to ensure that the Uist flights are fit for purpose and to protect all those flights with a public service order. If he does not, lives will be lost.
Some weeks ago, I had a discussion in Stornoway with an organisation that provides support and care to patients who require access to cancer treatment—the name is not at the front of my mind just now—about the substantive challenges that Rhoda Grant has raised with me regarding the practicalities of accessing hospital treatment from the islands when a sustained period of care is required.
I give Rhoda Grant the assurance that the health secretary and the transport ministers are looking closely at the situation to ensure that we are providing all the support that we can so that individuals who require to access healthcare needs are able to do so, regardless of their location.