The Rural Divide across Scotland continues
Latest statistics from CAMHS shows limited progress in tackling long waits for children and young people in rural Scotland.
Change Mental Health’s Rural Divide report in April 2024 identified stark inequalities in accessing mental healthcare for children and young people across the three most rural NHS health boards.
The latest statistics from Public Health Scotland show there has been limited progress in reducing these inequalities in rural Scotland in the last quarter.
The top lines of the last quarter reveal that across Scotland, 86% of children and young people were seen within 18 weeks of referral. This is an increase from 83.8% for the previous quarter and from 74.2% for the quarter before. The Scottish Government standard is for 90% of children and young people starting treatment within 18 weeks of referral to Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) across Scotland. This progress towards the 90% standard is welcome.
Yet this nationwide progress is not reflected in Scotland’s three most rural health boards.
NHS Highland
In NHS Highland, those seen within 18 weeks of referral actually decreased in the last quarter from 71.5% down to 68.5%. This is bucking the trends from Scotland-wide data and means that NHS Highland is more than 20% away from meeting the Scottish Government standards of 90%.
NHS Highland has made progress on those waiting 53 weeks or over, down to 9% from 13.2% in the previous quarter. Although this progress is welcome, NHS Highland remains a stark outlier to the nationwide figures of only 1.7% of those waiting 53 weeks or over.
NHS Borders
NHS Borders has made no progress towards tackling their waiting lists in the last quarter.
The percentage of children and young people seen within 18 weeks stood at 38.3%, down from 40% in the previous quarter. These are very minimal changes, with no progress towards achieving the 90% standard from the Scottish Government.
At only 38.3% being seen within 18 weeks, NHS Borders remains the worst performing health board for CAMHS by the Scottish Government’s own standards.
NHS Dumfries and Galloway
Similar to NHS Highland, NHS Dumfries and Galloway have had mixed progress in the latest quarter. NHS Dumfries and Galloway have had a substantial increase in those being seen within 18 weeks, at 64.1% up from 56.2% in the previous quarter.
However, those being seen within 36-53 weeks more than doubled in the latest quarter from 4% to 9.7%.
As such, while we are seeing increases to those being seen within 18 weeks, there are also increases to those waiting up to a year for treatment – which is a real note for concern.
We are yet to see marked increases in CAMHS waiting times for the three most rural health boards in Scotland. From NHS Highland, which continues to be a regional outlier on long waits, to NHS Borders, which remains the worst performing health board for CAMHS, rural communities are still struggling to gain access to basic mental healthcare for children and young people. While NHS Dumfries and Galloway has shown some limited progress to reducing waiting times, they still remain well below the national average.
As we called for back in April, the Scottish Government need to continue to press rural health boards for action on their CAMHS waiting lists. We will continue to progress our work to ensure every child and young person across Scotland can access the care and support they need.
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