Tayside cancer patients will have to travel to Glasgow, Edinburgh or Aberdeen for part of their treatment.
But they will still have staff from their own area with them to ensure continuity.
Cancer teams from the four main cancer centres in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee have been working together to implement a new pathway to deliver radiotherapy sessions to some breast cancer patients from Tayside.
This means that breast patients in Tayside will receive the radiotherapy part of their treatment plan at one of these other specialist cancer centres in Scotland.
This new arrangement for patients has been set up to address a staffing gap which has arisen in the Tayside cancer team.
The board in NHS Tayside has been trying to recruit a clinical oncologist to replace the current post-holder, who delivers the specialist breast cancer radiotherapy service at Ninewells Hospital, and who is due to retire shortly.
Unfortunately, the team has been unable to secure a replacement despite extensive recruitment efforts to date.
The health board assure that patients will have a dedicated Tayside breast nurse or nurse consultant as a direct link throughout their treatment.
Patients who will be travelling to one of the other cancer centres for radiotherapy are being directly contacted by one of the specialist nurses.
They will have all their travel and accommodation needs provided.
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.
“As part of a mutual aid response, the teams at the four cancer centres have worked together to develop plans to deliver the radiotherapy part of the Tayside pathway, an arrangement which is already in place at the other cancer centres for a number of other health boards.”
He added: “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.”
