Patients in Scotland are not getting “the right care in the right place at the right time”, John Swinney has said.
The First Minister laid out a plan to improve Scotland’s ailing health service in a speech in Edinburgh on Monday, where he said waiting times for treatment were a “canary in the coal mine”.
Scotland has struggled with high waiting times in recent years, exacerbated by the pandemic, including in A&E, outpatient procedures and other hospital treatment – where hundreds of thousands are languishing on waiting lists.
The First Minister announced plans to provide 150,000 more appointments and procedures, as well as a £10.5 million increase in funding for GPs as well as a pledge to give more funding to primary care in the future, and pledging the creation of “frailty teams” to be at every A&E in the country to help those who could “bypass” emergency departments and free up capacity.
Dr Jane Morris, Chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland, said:
“While we welcome the speech from John Swinney, the fact remains, we have been experiencing a mental health crisis for several years now.
“We already know the unprecedented demand for services and critical gaps in workforce are already leading to unacceptably long waits for treatment.
“Although we welcome the points made on CAMHS we know that adult mental health services are under as much if not more pressure, especially with the increase in awareness of conditions such as ADHD, which services are not expanded to meet.
“The Scottish Government must ensure that provision for mental health is a key priority in the NHS Reform Framework making sure our patients get high quality care, more quickly.
“Above all, we need ring-fenced mental health funding to reach the government’s own 10% budget commitment and 1% for CAMHS. We also need assurances that adequate resources are put in place urgently, for recruitment and retention.”
For further information, please contact:
- Email: laura.varney@rcpsych.ac.uk
- Contact Name: Senior Media Officer (Devolved Nations) Laura Varney