A seriously-ill cancer patient was stranded on the wrong Scottish island following a mix-up by air ambulance staff.

Last night, a senior Western Isles councillor was demanding an investigation into the blunder which led up to an air ambulance crew leaving Archie Boyd, 63, on Benbecula, rather than his intended destination of Barra. They are not even neighbouring islands. South Uist, Eriskay and 40 miles are in between.

There was local speculation that the problem had arisen because the name of the hospital on Benbecula is the Uist and Barra Hospital, which could have contributed to the misunderstanding.

The air ambulance aircraft flew him to Balivanich on Benbecula yesterday morning after he had received a session of radiotherapy treatment in a Glasgow hospital.

Mr Boyd was discharged at 7.30am from the Beatson Cancer Centre at Gartnavel Hospital. The plan was to transfer him to St Brendan's Hospital in Castlebay on his home island of Barra.

According to his family yesterday, Mr Boyd is too weak to move properly and the cancer in his face means he has lost the sight in one eye. It also affected his speech for a period. He has been ill for around six months and has had chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

The only way to get him home to Barra is by air ambulance, but a mistake meant the pilot landed at Benbecula yesterday morning.

But the error was not recognised until Mr Boyd had been taken off the aircraft and it had returned to Glasgow. An ambulance at Balivanich was arranged to take him to the nearby hospital. He finally got to Barra about 5.30pm yesterday.

According to the Scottish Ambulance Service, the high winds that were sweeping the Western Isles prevented a helicopter returning immediately to pick him up to take him south to Barra. So Mr Boyd remained on Benbecula throughout the day. His wife, Bellag, was very distressed.

She said: "It is disgusting. I think this is terrible. The same thing happened last week to another patient. I would not like this to happen to anyone else."

Mrs Boyd said she asked councillor Donald Manford to help sort out to get Mr Boyd to hospital on Barra.

Mr Manford said: "This is not the first time incidents like this have happened with people taken to the wrong place or left stranded. It is not an acceptable way to operate a service."

An Scottish Ambulance Service spokesman admitted an error had been made. "It was our understanding that the patient was to go to the Uist and Barra Hospital in Benbecula."

He said the weather thwarted attempts to return immediately. The ambulance service said it had made every effort with both the Inverness and Glasgow helicopters to get the patient to the Barra hospital as soon as possible.

He later reported that Mr Boyd was safely on Barra.