Scottish Labour repeats calls for public inquiry into mental health services in Tayside

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard - Image credit: David Anderson

Scottish Labour is renewing calls for a public inquiry into mental health services in NHS Tayside.

At First Minister’s Questions this week, Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard quoted comments by the Samaritans that suggested the Scottish Government was not taking suicide seriously enough, following research by the charity that found 61 per cent of Scots have been affected by suicide.

Leonard also raised the case of 50-year-old David Ramsay, who took his own life in 2016.

Ramsay killed himself after being twice rejected for treatment by the Carseview Centre at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, despite having made three suicide attempts in the space of a week.

Leonard said: “As the First Minister will know, Scotland’s suicide rate is more than twice the rate for Britain as a whole, and that in Dundee the suicide rate has increased by 61 per cent in a year.

“Behind those statistics are real people and real families who have lost loved ones, including the family of David Ramsay.”

He added: Tragically, David Ramsay’s story and the experience of his family is not unique in Dundee, so when I was in Dundee in March I backed the call by families for a public inquiry into mental health services at NHS Tayside.

“Why has the First Minister’s Government remained silent on this crisis and silent on that demand for a public inquiry?”

However, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon defended the Scottish Government’s record.

She said: “Richard Leonard has raised issues about the Carseview centre in NHS Tayside.

“It is not right or fair to say that the Government has ‘remained silent’.

“I know that the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport has visited Carseview on a number of occasions.

“I understand that the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland carried out an unannounced inspection of Carseview in March, and made a number of recommendations.

“Let me make it very clear today, as the health secretary and the mental health minister have already done, that we expect NHS Tayside to respond fully to the recommendations within three months.

“The recommendations have also, I understand, been shared with Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

“We will pay very close attention to NHS Tayside’s response, and if we consider that further action is required, that action will be taken.”

The Scottish Government has recently consulted on a draft suicide prevention action plan, with the final version, taking account of feedback, expected to be published in the summer.