Thank you. And that concludes general questions. Before we move to First Minister's questions,

I invite members to join me in welcoming to the gallery, His Excellency, Mr Vikram Doriswamy,

High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom. Thank you. The next item of business is First Minister's questions.

And at question number one, I call Douglas Ross.

Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. This week, Margaret McCall from Lannockshire described her

ordeal when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

She faced a three-month wait for NHS treatment in Scotland, and Margaret didn't know if she

had that long. So she used 27,000 pounds of her life savings for faster private treatment in England. Margaret said

this. Cancer kills if left untreated and the Scottish Government is allowing this to happen.

We shouldn't have to go to London or elsewhere.

Margaret is right, isn't she? Margaret is right that nobody should have to feel that the only option is to pay privately,

to go anywhere else outside of Scotland, for cancer treatment.

And can I pass on my sympathy to Margaret for what is an unacceptable ordeal that she has had to go through.

If I can try to give some context, I know Douglas Ross and indeed others in this chamber

and outside of this chamber are aware of the significant impact the COVID pandemic had on our health services

right across the UK, including on cancer services.

I think one of the most difficult decisions this government had to take during that COVID period

was, for example, to have to pause screening cancer screening for a period of a number of months,

and we are still dealing with the impacts of that difficult decision.

In terms of ovarian cancer more specifically, let me try to offer some assurance if I can

in the latest figures that in Scotland 94.7% of women, so over 9 out of 10, women are receiving

their first treatment for ovarian cancer

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