Hansard

In the spirit of consensus that is prevailing today, I will begin by welcoming all the speeches that have been made during the debate. In particular, I want to mention the very moving contribution that was made by David Davidson.

I also want to mention the warm and kind words that have been said about Bruce Millan and his report. Bruce Millan is probably best remembered as Secretary for State for Scotland and as a member of Parliament representing part of Glasgow, but he is a native of the city of Dundee—one of Dundee's sons who has done well. I am sure that we can look forward to a headline in the Courier and Advertiser: "Dundee man reforms Scotland's mental health laws."

That said, I welcome most of what the minister said and proposed in respect of mental health law. The Executive accords a high clinical priority to mental health. It recognises that people with mental illness and with learning disabilities have rights just like any other citizens. I also welcome the underlying principles behind the new legislation. Many members have referred to the principles of non-discrimination, equality, reciprocity and so on. In particular, I welcome the proposal that treatment, whether it be compulsory or voluntary, should be provided in a setting that depends on the assessed needs of the patient rather than on the prejudices of society or of the medical profession.

When the Executive approached the subject, it had nothing but the best of intentions: it wanted to try to do better for patients and for their carers. As other members have said, and as the minister and

her deputy know, without the allocation of sufficient money and resources, good intentions remain as intentions.

I was delighted to hear that the Executive will support the SNP amendment, as I was anticipating a summons to Tom McCabe's office yet again. Sometimes I think that I am more often in his office than he is.

I recently attended a seminar, run by the forensic psychiatry service for Tayside, which was held at Murray royal hospital in Perth. The seminar examined the service needs of mentally disordered offenders and was addressed by carers, users, a sheriff, the police, health care staff, housing staff and psychiatrists. All those speakers came to one conclusion about the level of service that is currently available: not enough money is being invested either to sustain the service or to meet the demands of users.

Over time, bed numbers have been reduced continually until we find ourselves in the present situation of having only 26 male beds and one female bed for the whole of Tayside. The beds are occupied 100 per cent. For emergency admissions, somebody has to be discharged inappropriately to make room for them.

Speakers told of patients having to wait for years to find a bed for which their need had been assessed. They spoke about staff having to work double shifts that resulted in up to 80 hours a month of overtime. Speakers also told of patients put inappropriately into prison. All that reflects the fact that, as we debate the issue today, insufficient resources are being allocated to mental health services. It is not a unique circumstance for people who are mentally disordered offenders.

I recently received a letter from a community psychiatric nurse working in Dundee, who complained about proposed cuts to this year's Tayside mental health services budget of more than £0.5 million. When I raised the matter with the health board, it indicated that those were not cuts; in fact, the budget was overspent. That might make bureaucratic sense, but it makes no real sense. There are patients in Dundee who can see reptiles coming through their floor and who severely damage themselves, but are told that there are no beds, and their carers are told that they will just have to put up with it. There are insufficient beds available for the patients who need them. We have to address that, not as the Labour party, the SNP, the Tories or anyone else, but as a Parliament. It is our responsibility to do something about it, and if that means reordering priorities or raising taxes, that is what we should do.