Breast cancer patients in Tayside will be forced to travel to Aberdeen, Glasgow or Edinburgh for treatment after the board failed to recruit a new clinician despite ‘extensive efforts’.

Staffing gaps at Ninewells Hospital means 7 to 8 patients a week will be treated in ‘out of area referrals’ at other specialist cancer centres in Scotland.

The board’s single breast radiotherapy oncologist is set to retire this month and ‘extensive efforts to recruit’ have not been successful.

Cancer services in Tayside were the subject of controversy after it emerged some patients were being treated with lower chemotherapy drug doses.

Experts argued there was no clinical evidence patients were put at any increased risk and the oncology team accused health board management of throwing them “under the bus”.

NHS Tayside warned back in November that mutual aid arrangements with other boards may be necessary due to a national shortage of breast oncologists.

However it also reassured patients that their treatment would continue to be delivered in Tayside, even in the case of clinicians leaving or retiring from the service

The First Minister said last year it would not be “acceptable or appropriate for women in Tayside to have to travel long distances for essential breast cancer support and care”.

Professor Peter Stonebridge, NHS Tayside Medical Director, said: “Our preference is that every aspect of the breast cancer pathway would be delivered in Tayside.

“However, we must be able to deliver a safe service for our patients and the key aspect of being able to achieve this is the availability of the necessary specialist clinical workforce required on a longer-term, sustainable footing.

“We remain committed to delivering services locally, as long as it is safe for patients and, in this case, that requires the provision of the suitable specialist medical workforce.”

Two-thirds of clinical staff have left the board’s breast oncology service in recent years, local MSP Michael Marra told The Courier.

Early breast cancer services have been supported by an NHS Grampian consultant since 2020.

Professor Stonebridge says NHS Tayside remains “committed to delivering services locally” and that it will work with the Scottish government to restore the radiotherapy pathway in the region.

Other cancer site radiotherapy sessions will continue to be run locally.

Read more: Concerns over Tayside cancer treatment variations; Welcome for new breast cancer treatments

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