The proportion of NHS cash spent on mental health has dropped in Scotland, according to new research.
All but three health boards report cuts in the percentage of their budget dedicated to mental health services - even though it is one of the Scottish Executive's clinical priorities.
Dr Sean Boyle, senior research fellow with the London School of Economics and author of the study, said Scotland ought to refocus on this area of medicine.
However, the Scottish Executive said the figures did not reflect the extra money GPs and councils are spending on patients with mental health problems. The research was commissioned by the health committee of the Scottish Parliament.
Roseanna Cunningham, the committee convener, said: "There is a long-held perception that mental health care is something of a Cinderella service within the NHS which does not receive an appropriate level of funding. Dr Boyle's figures show that while there has been an increase in the overall spend on mental health provision across Scotland, it is worrying that the share of overall expenditure in this field has dropped. The committee is concerned that this may reflect a reduction in the priority given to mental health."
Dr Michael Smith, spokesman for the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland, said the findings confirmed suspicions. He added: "The reason we think that it is an area worth investment is because of the enormous prevalence of mental health problems. It represents a third of GP presentations, a third of GP time and 40% of incapacity benefit claims at least."
Shona Neil, chief executive of the Scottish Association for Mental Health, said Scotland needed to look at how the money being spent was benefiting patients.
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Executive said the latest figures show spending on mental health by NHS boards grew from £640m in 2003-04 to £687m in 2004-05.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article