John Swinney says emergency care on Skye ‘not good enough’

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton also pressed the first minister on the difficulties Ms Beaton faced getting care.

He said the emergency care system in Skye had “collapsed” over the weekend, and that Ms Beaton had suffered a “life-threatening” anaphylactic shock “virtually on the door step of Portree Hospital”.

Mr Cole-Hamilton said lifeboat volunteers had been “hammering on the doors” of the facility while “her boyfriend literally threw rocks at the windows of the hospital”.

He asked: “Why has it take six years, and a near fatality, for this government to finally lift the phone of NHS Highland about emergency care on Skye?”

Ms Beaton told BBC Naidheachdan she had struggled to breath during her ordeal.

Oxygen was retrieved from an RNLI lifeboat, which was anchored in the nearby bay, and was used to relieve her symptoms until an ambulance arrived 45 minutes later.

There had been a problem finding an oxygen mask and one was eventually sourced from Portree hospital.

Ms Beaton has been among islanders who have campaigned for improved services.

In a statement on Thursday she said: “The report has been on the table for six years saying we need 24-hour, urgent care.

“They keep making these promises but delivering no action, making the same excuses.”