Douglas Ross has called on Nicola Sturgeon to do more to improve “appalling” cancer waiting times in the NHS.
Speaking at First Minister's Questions, the Scottish Tory leader raised the case of a patient waiting two years to begin their treatment.
Mr Ross said his party had received freedom of information data from a Scottish health board on waiting times to start cancer treatment.
He said one patient had waited six months to begin treatment for breast cancer, while another had waited 18 months to start prostate cancer treatment.
“Worst of all”, he said, one patient had waited two years to begin cancer treatment.
Responding, the First Minister said the median waiting time to begin cancer treatment was measured in days rather than months, a figure that had improved despite the pandemic.
She said: “There will be individual cases and sometimes clinical circumstances mean that it takes longer.
“And sometimes, yes, where failings in the NHS mean that it takes longer.
“The point I’m making is, for the vast majority of patients, that is not the case.”
Meanwhile, Health Secretary Humza Yousaf told the BBC that he has sleepless nights over the state of the NHS.
He said he was spending "every waking moment possible" trying to see what support government could give.
He said the NHS "would cope but it will be extremely challenging".
"The health service is under probably the most significant pressure it has ever been under in its 74-year existence," he said.
"I've many sleepless nights, not figuratively speaking but quite literally speaking.
"We're still recovering from the pandemic, the effects of the pandemic, we're into winter - frankly if you're not concerned then you're not doing your job rightly."
Mr Yousaf added: "I can give your listeners a guarantee that I'm spending every single waking moment I possibly can to see what support we can give both healthcare and but also social care.
"We need to invest in [social care] in order to free up some of that capacity through the back door."
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