EDWARD MOUNTAIN: Mobile units can help detect bowel cancer in Sutherland and other rural areas
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Holyrood Notebook by Edward Mountain
Being an advocate for bowel cancer awareness wasn’t among my initial set of goals on becoming an MSP in 2016.
But following my own diagnosis five years later, it’s now a matter extremely close to my heart.
So I was grateful to have a very amicable exchange at First Minister’s Questions last week with Humza Yousaf on how we can make Scotland’s already excellent screening programme even better.
It is the second most deadly cancer in the UK, as well as being the fourth most common.
I was lucky in that I spotted symptoms and was able to get them checked in short order, meaning treatment could commence and the cancer could be removed.
Because of that efficiency, I am now down to annual checks, and one of the lucky ones for whom life can continue.
I intend to use some of that precious time campaigning for things to get even better, ensuring fewer people are missed and that when cancer is detected, it is done so at an earlier stage.
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The current screening programme, which invites all people aged between 50 and 74 to submit a sample, is already the envy of the UK.
That is because it looks for a reading of 80 or above in a measure described as microgram of human haemoglobin per gram of faeces.
If your sample reaches that limit or exceeds it, there is cause for concern, and you are sent for a colonoscopy to find out more.
Across the UK, the limit is actually higher, at 120, and therefore potentially misses more cases.
Along with bowel cancer charities, I want the limit lowered to 20.
That would detect far more cases at an early stage, reducing the risk of invasive treatment and undoubtedly saving lives along the way.
The Scottish Government has been sympathetic to this and, last week, Mr Yousaf agreed to look again at how to increase the sensitivity of the screening.
The impact, of course, would be more investment in endoscopies.
But I believe that cost would be worth it not just in human terms by lives saved, but by the long-term preventative measures.
Endoscopies and the resources to carry them out aren’t free, but they are most definitely cheaper than putting a patient through intensive surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
I also believe there is a solution for rural Scotland.
So often we hear of progressions in healthcare, but the reality of that for people in Caithness is a lengthy journey to the city in order to access it.
With increased and improved screening, there should also be investment in mobile units which could carry out endoscopies on the road.
The similar initiative involving breast cancer screening vehicles across Scotland is very successful and rightfully well-regarded.
Bowel cancer deserves a similar resource.
People don’t tend to mind travelling long distances for big-ticket health procedures, but they may be less inclined to do so for something like a colonoscopy. The mobile unit would plug that vital gap.
April is bowel cancer awareness month and I was pleased to be able to bring the cause to the Scottish Parliament.
This time next year, I hope to do so again.
And when I do, I want to pay tribute to our new and improved screening system, which can be as beneficial to the Highlands as anywhere else.
• Edward Mountain is a Scottish Conservative MSP for the Highlands and Islands.
