Thousands of men who need treatment for prostate cancer are having to wait for more than the two-month target window for treatment.
More than 3,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year in Scotland and around one thousand men die annually.
Symptoms include an increased need to pee, straining while you pee and feeling like your bladder has not fully emptied.
READ MORE: Tenant's health fears as mouldy walls spread throughout West Dunbartonshire home in safety risk
New figures, from Public Health Scotland, have revealed that 56.2 per cent of men had to wait more than 62 days in the last three months from being referred on suspicion of prostate cancer to that treatment beginning.
It's the worst performance for any cancer in the country when it comes to treating patients within the agreed target timeframe.
It is also the worst waiting time in years for prostate cancer, including when many services were paused during the pandemic. It comes as pressure mounts on health secretary Humza Yousaf to resign over his handling of the health service since being appointed last May, the Daily Record reports.
These statistics show a total of 617 men were given an urgent prostate cancer referral in the quarter to September.
Pro-UK campaigners Scotland in Union said the declining performance was the latest indictment of the SNP-Green government’s handling of the NHS.
Pamela Nash, chief executive of Scotland in Union, said: “It’s well-known that prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, and the Scottish Government itself has taken part in awareness campaigns for precisely that reason.
“Yet when it comes to treating it, the performance is absolutely dire. More than half of those diagnosed who need this treatment urgently are waiting too long.
"That will cost lives and inflict misery on families right across Scotland.
"This is more evidence that our NHS is being failed by a nationalist government which has simply been too distracted to run the health service properly.
"Families across the country deserve far better than this, and the Scottish Government should be urgently explaining how it is going to radically improve this figure before more men lose their lives.
“When people say they want the SNP to focus on things that really matter, this is the kind of thing they mean.”
READ NEXT:
Hundreds of households left without water on Christmas Day after supply issue
Man rushed to hospital after being found seriously injured at Rutherglen house
'Armed' men attack staff in Paisley shop in Boxing Day robbery
Glasgow mum gives birth to first Christmas baby of the year
Glasgow's long-serving cleansing workers retire after 84 years of service
