Fears that eye patients could go blind due to Loganair islands flight cuts
Services will be reduced between Inverness, Stornoway, Kirkwall and Sumburgh from July
Eye patients could go blind because of impending cuts to Loganair flights connecting the Western Isles to the mainland, the islands’ health board has told MSPs.
Officials told the Scottish Parliament’s transport committee on Wednesday they feared people would be deterred from attending health appointments if they were faced with having to stay overnight rather than being able to back the same day.
Loganair plans to halve daily return flights between Inverness and Stornoway to one a day and reduce services between Inverness and Orkney and Shetland to weekends only from July 20 because of increased costs.
NHS Western Isles chief executive Gordon Jamieson said the cuts could cost the health board up to £1 million a year in extra travel for patients and visiting consultants and specialist staff.
He said 28 per cent of its services would be affected, which would have a “very significant impact”. Recruitment of specialist staff was also being affected.
NHS Western Isles chair Gillian McCannon said: “We have an elderly population and cataracts is the most major cause of our surgery.
“The risk is that patients will not be able to travel. It’s difficult with people that are visually impaired and the increased risk is that people will potentially go blind.
“There are people that will not go for treatment because of the longevity of being away.”
Martin Joyce, chief executive of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles Council), said: “The scale of the impact cannot be underestimated.”
Shetland Isles Council chief executive Maggie Sandison said the cuts were part of “a cycle of erosion and decline in our air services”.
“We have seen since Covid a reduction in the frequency of timetables [and] fares increase, and that causes the service to be less attractive, people travel less because they can’t afford to travel, so usage drops and is used as a reason for further reductions.
“It feels like our islands are being treated as though we are not contributing to Scotland and those lifeline links are not being valued.
“Our concern is if we accept this, what happens next, because people will be able to do it again and again, and our services will continue to decline.”
Loganair officials told the committee they had hoped to have secured extra funding from Scottish Government-owned Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (Hial) to avert the cuts.
But the Glasgow-based airline warned that it needed an extra £1.3m to restore the flights from October, some of which operated with just 20 per cent of seats filled.
Chief commercial officer Ronnie Matheson said the routes had been long-term loss makers because of low demand, with the position deteriorating over the last year due to fuel costs almost doubling and maintenance costs rising significantly.
He said: “They [the losses] have got to a point where it is completely unsustainable for us to continue flying these routes.”
Mr Matheson said the high cost of some tickets - of up to £700 - was because “we have to attempt to at least contribute towards the cost of operating the service.”
Loganair head of corporate and government affairs Simon McNamara said a strategy was required for supporting such loss-making routes, like in other countries.
Hial chief executive Paul Kelsall said it remained in discussions with Loganair.
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