By Lucy Ashton
Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton constituency, has demanded action on ‘shocking’ waits for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) with the latest figures showing less than half of patients were being seen within the Scottish Government target of 18 weeks.
The most recent statistics on wait times for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, up until the end of last year, show there are almost 2691 people on the waiting list across the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde area.
For the quarter ending December 2021, out of the 1561 people referred to the service, less than half (49.5 percent) were given an appointment within 18 weeks while 11.8 percent were seen between 19 and 35 weeks of referral and 32.2 percent were seen between 36 and 52 weeks.
There were 102 young people (6.5 percent) in the health board area, which covers West Dunbartonshire, waiting for over a year.
This is despite the SNP government aiming to treat 90 percent of those referred within 18 weeks.
Jackie Baillie said: “Young people have borne the brunt of much of this pandemic and as a result we know many young people are dealing with mental health issues.
“Despite this, the SNP government has failed to properly support CAMHS services.
“Thousands of young people are regularly waiting over the 18-week target time to begin treatment including many in the Dumbarton, Vale of Leven and Balloch areas.
Jackie Baillie confronts Humza Yousaf over cancer figures and children’s mental health.
“Shockingly, almost a third are being forced to wait somewhere between nine months and a year for an appointment. This is far too long for a young person struggling mentally but has found the strength to call for help. “
“We cannot have a situation in which thousands of young people go without treatment due to the SNP’s failure to support CAMHS services. CAMHS staff work incredibly hard but there are not enough of them.
“Kevin Stewart has entirely failed to heed the calls of the experienced staff and those with lived experience – he still seems unable to turn things around for young people and their families.
“This has to end – it’s high time that the SNP stopped turning their backs on CAMHS staff and service users and took action.”
Meanwhile, Jackie Baillie MSP has warned a “cancer timebomb” is hitting our NHS, as performance against cancer treatment targets falls to a record low in Dumbarton, the Vale of Leven and Balloch.
The latest cancer waiting times show that from October to December 2021 just 72 percent of patients in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde were seen within the 62-day cancer waiting time target.
The flagship 62-day waiting time standard, which has not been met overall since 2012, was missed in every single health board in Scotland that quarter.
Across the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board area, which covers West Dunbartonshire, 12 percent of people with a suspicion of cancer were referred between 63 and 83 days later and a staggering 16 percent had to wait for more than 84 days for an appointment.
Jackie Baillie accused the SNP of “dangerous negligence” for letting things reach this point.
The Dumbarton constituency MSP said: “Scottish Labour have long warned that there is a cancer time bomb threatening to wreak havoc with services and cost lives, and now this is starting to hit.
“NHS staff are working tirelessly to keep things going and do right by patients, but the SNP’s dangerous negligence has left services to collapse to record lows.
“This is impacting people within West Dunbartonshire right now, many of whom are being left to worry about how serious their condition is as they face lengthy waits for treatment.
“The Health Secretary [Humza Yousaf] is nowhere to be seen despite this lethal crisis looming. We urgently need a real cancer recovery plan to fix this unprecedented catastrophe before more lives are lost.”
With economic living standards set to have the biggest fall since records began the lack of health care is only going to get progressively worse.
Britain is out of the EU and many doctors and nurses left, as did many many other classes of workers.
The economy already weakened by Covid is in decline. In fact you don’t see many ships, trains, cars, televisions being built here. Indeed with the great wind energy revolution the huge offshore tower jackets, like the latest ferries, are built abroad in places like Dubai, China and Turkey.
And cold houses, well Boris Johnson said yesterday that it will just be the case that some households will have to do without heating.
So yes, we can complain about wait times for mental health treatment but the reality is a country heading down the economic pan.
We wanted Brexit divorce dividend and correspondingly the UK Union Divident. That is what our politicians sold us. They’ve certainly sold us a lot.
And now we reap the benefits.