Told she might have cancer, Jenny had to wait nearly a year to find out

The SNP have been letting Scotland’s women down with long waits for NHS treatment and diagnosis

Jenny was just 29 when she received a letter after a routine test telling her that she had abnormal cell changes associated with cervical cancer. The letter told her she would be invited to a colposcopy clinic within eight weeks so that a specialist could take a closer look at the cells.

But eight weeks passed, and Jenny heard nothing. In the end, she spent 50 anxious weeks waiting for her follow up appointment – almost an entire year. During that time, she was unable to get health-related insurance, which complicated a house purchase and also made it impossible for her to consider getting a colposcopy privately.

As she put it: "You have this push to get regular smear tests, just in case, and then when you actually have a worrying result, you need to wait a year and your life is on hold.”

Sadly, Jenny was far from alone. freedom of information (FOI) requests submitted by Scottish Labour revealed that women were waiting more than eight months for a colposcopy, with waits of 266 days and 259 days reported in NHS Tayside and NHS Borders respectively.

Women with early stage cervical cancer can end up waiting years to get a hysterectomy (Picture: Christopher Furlong) | Getty Images

Waiting six years for a hysterectomy

Routine screening for cervical cancer is the result of decades of public health campaigning. Yet it is pointless if not followed up by swift action.

In Jenny’s case, when she finally got an appointment, she was given the all-clear on the same day, but for those women who are diagnosed with early stage cervical cancer, the next step may be an operation known as a hysterectomy.

Yet there, too, they may find themselves in limbo. A separate Scottish FOI found some women are waiting years for the procedure, with one woman in NHS Grampian waiting almost six years.

While the figures don’t distinguish between the most and least urgent cases, what is clear is that the average wait for a hysterectomy has risen since 2019/20 in most NHS health boards. No one can disagree with the Scottish Government’s position on women’s health in theory.

Its 2021 Women’s Health Plan laid out in detail the importance of prioritising rolling out breast and cervical screening programmes and offering women proper support during the menopause. The problem is not the principle but what is happening in practice.

Going to Romania for diagnosis

Just ask Emily Mann, who travelled to Romania to get the keyhole surgery needed to diagnose endometriosis, a debilitating condition where womb-like cells grow in other parts of the body, causing extreme pain.

Emily made the decision to travel thousands of miles after being told she would need to wait two years for an official diagnosis. "At this point,” she told this newspaper, “I was absolutely desperate."

One of the reasons women’s health has remained neglected for so long is the stigma surrounding women talking about sexual health and period pain. Now women are taking up screening, seeking diagnoses and trying to get the medical help they need – only to find it isn’t there.

The glossy reports can’t disguise the fact that the SNP is going in the wrong direction on women’s health.

Women deserve better.

Jackie Baillie is MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader and her party’s spokesperson for health