The First Minister was called on to match the UK Government’s boost for mental health services and end the misery for Tayside youngsters waiting months for help.
Willie Rennie, the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, challenged Nicola Sturgeon to bring forward SNP spending plans to pledge more cash for combating “staggering” waiting times.
NHS Tayside has the worst child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) waiting times in the country with 70% of young people seen by mental health specialists within 18 weeks of being referred, as reported in The Courier.
Mr Rennie said the Scottish Government’s current plan, which includes tapping into a £100 million five-year fund, is “simply not enough”.
He said: “We asked the health minister about the shocking waiting times back then [in June].
“He said he had a recovery plan but since then it’s actually got worse. Fifty per cent of young people in Grampian don’t get seen on time and that rises to a staggering 70% in Tayside. That’s hundreds of teenagers waiting for months to get help they need urgently.”
On being invited to give an “early commitment” to boosting mental health funding, Ms Sturgeon said their plans will be laid out in her deputy’s budget next month.FMQs: as it happenedShe said: “Willie Rennie talked rightly about a number of health boards that are facing significant challenges and we are establishing an improvement team to work with them to address those challenges.
“We are seeing some progress towards we need to achieve his – a 4.5% increase in CAMHS clinical staff, since 2009 the CAMHS workforce has increased by more than a quarter.”
George Obsorne promised £600 million to the NHS in England and Wales until 2020 for mental health services in his Autumn Statement yesterday.
In a testy exchange with Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale, Ms Sturgeon ducked questions about the mismatch of her party’s estimation two years ago of oil revenues, compared with this week’s forecast by the Office of Budget Responsibility.
The SNP’s White Paper on independence estimated securing £8 billion in tax receipts from oil in the first year of independence. The Office of Budget Responsibility’s prediction is £130 million.
Ms Dugdale said: “The OBR published updated oil revenue figures and it is not talking Scotland down to say they made for grim reading.
“Two years ago the First Minister promised a future free from Tory austerity based on oil revenues of £8 billion a year at the point of independence.
“Can the First Minister say how much oil revenues are expected to be this year?”
Scottish Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser also jumped into the debate, calling on the First Minister to explain what the “black hole” would be in Scottish finances if the SNP’s plans for full fiscal autonomy had come to fruition.
But Ms Sturgeon refused to provide a figure to either member and accused Labour of “gleefully crowing” over the collapse in the industry.
She told the Scottish Parliament: “On the day after Labour’s fellow campaigners in the Better Together campaign otherwise known as the Tories announced plans to cut the Scottish budget in real terms in revenue budget by £1.5 billion by the end of this decade, for Kezia Dugdale to stand up and talk about cuts or anything like that is breathtaking hypocrisy.”
The UK Government’s dumping of a £1 billion carbon capture and storage technology scheme in Aberdeenshire and North Yorkshire was called a “disgrace” by the First Minister.
The project would have trapped carbon emissions in the Peterhead power plant before sending them 62 miles through pipes into the North Sea for storage.
Ms Sturgeon said: “I would call on the UK to reverse this decision because it is because it is utter folly, it is unfair to businesses and it is downright wrong.”