Mental health patients waiting more than 2,000 days for treatment

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has today called on the SNP Government to reverse devastating cuts to the mental health budget after new research by his party uncovered extremely long waits for psychological therapies across Scotland’s health boards, including waits of more than 2,000 days.

A freedom of information request by the party sent to all of Scotland’s health boards found that in 2023/24:

• Patients in NHS Grampian, NHS Highland and NHS Tayside waited more than 1,000 days to start mental health treatment, with the longest wait being 2,502 days (more than 6 years) in NHS Tayside. Patients also waited 2,268 days in NHS Highland and 1,043 days in NHS Grampian before they received treatment;  
• In NHS Forth Valley, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, NHS Shetland, NHS Ayrshire & Arran, NHS Dumfries & Galloway and NHS Orkney, people waited between 500-1,000 days to start mental health treatment;
• 84 patients in NHS Forth Valley, 42 patients in NHS Highland and 20 patients in NHS Fife have currently waited more than two years for psychological therapies;
• Among those who have started treatment, almost all health boards reported patients waiting more than a year to do so.

Mr Cole-Hamilton said:

“Years and years of waiting must make patients feel like help is never going to come.

“SNP ministers have unleashed tens of millions of cuts to mental health budgets. They have made it so much harder to bring down waiting lists and get everyone seen.

“Scottish Liberal Democrats led the charge in getting the Scottish Parliament to declare that there is a mental health crisis, despite opposition from the government. Since then, we’ve set out a detailed plans for ensuring everyone has access to comprehensive mental health support, including training more professionals in key roles, from psychiatrists to mental health officers.

“My party would deliver world-class mental services for our country, funded by increasing the tax paid by the social media giants who are responsible for so much of the problem.”