The Scottish Conservatives have accused the Scottish Government of threatening to abandon mental health waiting times without putting in place any alternative monitoring procedures.
The SNP’s new mental health minister Claire Haughey provided a progress report on the SNP Government’s mental health strategy to the Scottish Parliament this afternoon but failed to address this point.
Scottish Conservative Mental Health spokesperson Annie Wells highlighted that Scotland currently has the worst waiting times for children’s mental health on record, with those services also being described as fragmented.
The Scottish Conservatives have therefore called on the SNP to outline concrete plans on how they intend to deliver real improvements for patients.
Annie Wells MSP, Scottish Conservative mental health spokesman said:
“The SNP has totally failed to outline how they plan to improve mental health services across the country.
“Right now patients, especially our children and young people, are being let down by a lack of a coherent strategy.
“While many of the commitments to mental health are welcome, we need to hear more on how the plans for counsellors in our schools will be fully delivered.
“If the SNP wants to move away from waiting times statistics, they must clearly outline how they will monitor how quickly vulnerable patients are being treated.
“The SNP is responsible for the longest ever waiting times for children needing to access mental health support. They cannot simply dismiss these damning statistics.”