Nearly 23,000 Scots stuck on NHS waiting list to see psychologist
Nearly 23,000 Scots are languishing on an NHS waiting list to see a psychologist. Freedom of Information Requests revealed that some 22,880 are currently on a psychologist waiting list.
Dr Pavan Srireddy, vice-chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland, said: 'While concerning, these figures come as no surprise. The unprecedented demand for services and critical gaps in the mental health workforce is already leading to unacceptably long waits for mental health care and treatment.
'Working on the frontline we see a postcode lottery of specialist mental health services across the country, but our patients deserve so much better than this.
'Alarmingly, waiting times may be even higher because the Scottish Government don't consider the rise in people seeking help for neurodevelopmental conditions such as Autism or ADHD."
NHS Lothian had the longest list, with 4,287 patients waiting to be seen. This was followed by Greater Glasgow and Clyde on 3,733 and Tayside on 2,821.
Grampian had 2,736 patients waiting, Forth Valley had 2,729 and Lanarkshire had 2,097.
The only other health board with more than 1,000 people waiting was NHS Fife, on 1,746.
Dr Srireddy continued: 'The situation is only set to get worse if there is no action. Targets are missed but what we need is ringfenced funding and resources ploughed in at local level.
'We also urgently need a strategy to not just recruit more psychiatrists, but to retain our experienced doctors who sadly face excessive workloads, stress and burnout due to staff shortages leading them to leave permanent roles.
'Above all, we need ring-fenced mental health funding to reach the government's own 10% budget commitment and ensure adequate resources are put in place urgently, for recruitment and retention.'
Campaigner Peter Todd - who waited five years for mental health treatment - said: "Many of our leaders have no idea much patient's lives are affected by waiting years for psychological treatment because they have no sense of what goes on in the real world.
"No doubt we will here covid being used as an excuse. But that doesn't wash because I was forced to wait 5 years back in 2018 due to being a victim of the MP Cyril Smith scandal which I gave evidence at the Historical Abuse Inquiry about.
"I look forward to John Swinney campaigning in Caithness in the run up to the Holyrood election, so he can hear my experience and how my Iife was ripped apart because of his parties inept running of mental health services which forced me to wait five years."
Scottish Labour Mental Health spokesperson Paul Sweeney said 'These shocking figures lay bare the true scale of Scotland's mental health crisis and the SNP's woeful failure to deliver the support needed.
'Behind these figures are people who have been failed in their darkest hour by an NHS that is no longer truly free and available at the point of need.
' NHS staff are working tirelessly to keep overstretched mental health services going, but they are being let down by an SNP government more interested in fiddling the figures than fixing the waiting lists.
'Scots needs NHS mental health services that they can count on and we need a change in government to deliver that.'
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: 'The latest Public Health Scotland data shows that more than 74,000 people started treatment in psychological therapies last year.
'One in two patients are starting treatment within three weeks of referral and there was a significant increase of 7.5% of patients starting treatment in the last quarter.
'This has been made possible by the hard work of our psychology services workforce which has increased by 61.8% in the last decade.
'We want to ensure that all people in Scotland can access the right help, at the right time to support their mental and physical health. We continue to work with NHS Boards that are not on track to meet the standard that 90% of patients begin treatment within 18 weeks of referral.'
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