Coronavirus: Concerns raised over isles Covid-19 testing
- Published
NHS Western Isles says it is "working hard" to access services available on the mainland
Concerns have been raised about the level of Covid-19 testing on the Western Isles.
Regional test centres and mobile units are available on the mainland for testing anyone over the age of five.
But NHS Western Isles has just local testing with the focus on key workers, their households and people entering hospitals and care homes.
Local authority, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, said islanders risked being treated like "second-class citizens".
Council leader Roddie Mackay said he was "not convinced" NHS Western Isles had the capacity to implement new "test and protect" measures in line with Scottish government guidance.
The health board said it was "working hard" to arrange access to national testing services.
NHS Western Isles was the last of Scotland's health board areas to confirm the presence of coronavirus and has a total of six confirmed cases - the lowest in Scotland, according to Scottish government figures.
The comhairle has asked NHS Western Isles to give reassurances to islanders that full test and protect procedures will be in place for use in the islands.
'Deserve no less'
Mr Mackay said: "I want to ensure that people in the Western Isles are treated at least the same as people in the rest of Scotland, otherwise we are effectively being discriminated against.
"Our communities, which have been magnificent during this pandemic, deserve no less. Anything else means we are being treated as second-class citizens in our own country."
NHS Western Isles said it continued to use local arrangements to test a "wide variety of individuals" in line with government policy. About 550 tests for Covid-19 have been carried out in the islands so far.
The health board said it welcomed the launch of the wider national testing system, which introduces testing and contract tracing to anyone with symptoms of Covid-19 over the age of five.
'Arrangements in place'
Director of public health, Dr Maggie Watts, said: "On the mainland, there are both regional testing centres and local mobile testing units in place for the wider testing of anyone with symptoms over the age of five.
"We are working hard to arrange access to the national testing service, which will be communicated out to our communities very shortly."
She added: "NHS Western Isles already has arrangements in place to commence contact tracing with the next confirmed case of Covid-19 in the Western Isles."
The Scottish government said it was "building contact tracing capacity at a local level".
A spokesman said: "There has been a total of six confirmed cases in the Western Isles and it is the only health board in Scotland not to have recorded a laboratory confirmed death of Covid-19 - but we are determined to ensure that the area has the same access to test and protect resources as every other part of Scotland.
"NHS Western Isles has put in place local arrangements to test people with possible Covid-19 symptoms, and already has arrangements in place to contact trace any confirmed positives."