MSP's meeting invitation to mental health minister for discussions on north-east issues was declined
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Scotland’s mental health minister snubbed an invitation to meet north-east health chiefs over “difficult” changes to adult neurodevelopmental treatment.
Earlier this year, 10 recommendations by the Queen Margaret University-based National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT) were accepted by former Scottish Government Minister Kevin Stewart.
These included the development of treatment standards and the formation of a strategy and planning group in every health and social care partnership.
It later emerged 850 adult patients were waiting for an assessment across the north-east, with 55 assessed in the last two years.
Aberdeenshire West MSP Alexander Burnett is the co-founder of the Scottish Parliament’s cross-party group on autism.
He asked Maree Todd, Mr Stewart’s successor, to meet NHS Grampian bosses “to outline how adoption of the NAIT recommendations will work for the north-east, and whether diagnosis teams will be getting any extra support to tackle the backlog of adults waiting for assessment.”
While she acknowledged “difficult decisions need to be made regarding budgets this year and there is currently no commitment to allocate funding to individual areas,” Ms Todd did not accept the invitation.
Mr Burnett said: “I welcome the NAIT report which should help standardise the experience for adults with autism, ADHD and other neurodevelopmental needs.
“But this is all going to require resources, and the service in Grampian already has a long waiting list.
“The Minister says difficult decisions will be made about how funding is achieved – this is par for the course.
“But this is the person responsible for delivery. It is a cop-out to say she can’t add anything useful when plans will come forward this year.
“The NAIT recommendations should be an opportunity for the SNP government to help NHS Grampian — and the people waiting years for an assessment, let alone support.”
