Meeting of the Parliament 12 January 2022
I am fed up with Government party back benchers using that as an excuse to not properly fund services. The need for proper funding must be recognised.
To return to NHS services, Scottish Labour’s amendment notes that
“the 18-week waiting time targets for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services ... has never been met”
and, on top of that, we have heard that there are
“almost 2,000 children and young people on the waiting list who have waited over a year to begin treatment”.
I do not think that we would leave someone waiting for a year if they had a serious physical injury, so why does the minister not address that situation? Beyond the individuals who are directly affected, those figures tell the story of thousands of extended families, and they speak to us about this. They are constantly worried about their loved ones.
At the bottom of much of the problem is continued underinvestment. The Government’s motion papers over some of the cracks, but it is not anywhere near enough to turn the ship around and address the very real issues of staff shortages. The truth is that only this Government can take the blame for it. Its lack of planning has resulted in such failures for our staff and the workforce. Our NHS staff deserve much better.
I would ask the minister the questions, but he already knows the answers, because the previous speaker mentioned that there are more than 1,000 vacancies for mental health nurses and almost 100 consultant psychiatrist vacancies across Scotland. Will he tell us how many of those vacancies will be filled, and whether they will be filled over the next 12 months?
Staff shortages are undermining our efforts to improve services, to get people who are experiencing poor mental health the right treatment and to support staff wellbeing. Those things do not seem to be a priority. It takes time and long-term planning to get them in place, but a quick pat on the back is preferred. Short-termism will not cut it. It looks as though the Scottish Government’s own target to recruit 800 mental health workers by 2022 will be missed. Of those positions, 100 have not even been created. Let us be honest—it was not even an ambitious target. Those statistics do not make for positive reading.
However, there is an alternative. Scottish Labour believes that every GP practice should have access to mental health professionals to support patients close to home and reduce pressures on GPs who are already struggling to deal with their growing case loads. It is our contention that, in order to do that, mental health funding should be increased to at least 11 per cent of the NHS budget. Doing so would signal to young people, in particular, that this Government is taking mental health seriously.
We can see developing a consistent pattern, whereby the Government comes to the chamber to announce targets that are designed to address long-term problems. Those targets are missed, and then it simply starts the cycle again.