Almost 1 in 5 senior mental health roles missing a permanent appointee

After new research by his party revealed that almost 1 in 5 senior mental health roles are either vacant or being filled by locums, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has urged the SNP to get serious about staffing to tackle Scotland’s mental health crisis.

A Scottish Liberal Democrat freedom of information request to health boards has revealed that:

• 101 consultant psychiatrist roles out of 536 whole time equivalent roles (WTE) across Scotland are currently vacant.
• The health board with the highest number of vacancies is NHS Tayside, which currently has 21.1 vacancies.
• Neither NHS Shetland nor NHS Western Isles has any permanent consultant psychiatrists in place, while more than 40% of roles are vacant in NHS Fife

Mr Cole-Hamilton said:

“On the SNP’s watch, a significant number of the most senior mental health roles are either lying empty or being filled on a temporary basis.

“These gaps will only add to the devastating waiting times that thousands of children and adults are already suffering, while piling on the pressure for staff.

“Alongside increasing the number of consultant psychiatrists in training, Scottish Liberal Democrats would roll out more counsellors in schools and deliver more mental health professionals in GP surgeries and A&E departments.

“Scotland deserves world-class mental health services- that starts by getting serious about staffing.”