Joint motion with Royal College of Psychiatrists on our ‘Your Views: Psychiatrists in Scotland’
A motion has been submitted to the Scottish Parliament welcoming our recent report Your Views: Psychiatrists in Scotland and calling on the Scottish Government to take action to address the growing lack of permanent psychiatrists in Scotland, alongside issues relating to quality assurance, patient safety, and continuity of care from the increased use of locum psychiatrists.
The motion is a joint submission between Vox and the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland, which also stresses the need for a standardised system of transparent psychiatrist job titles/roles, reflecting the training and qualification levels achieved, and increased funding and support to implement the core mental health standards across Scotland’s mental health sector.
The full motion text can be seen below.
We would encourage you, where possible, to contact your MSPs (both constituency and list) to ask them to support the motion. You can find their contact details at WriteToThem and, for ease, we have provided some suggested text which you may wish to use.
Motion Text
Parliament welcomes the publication of two reports relating to locum psychiatry, the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland Locum Psychiatry Survey – Report & Recommendations from the perspective of psychiatrists and Your Views: Psychiatrists in Scotland, by VOX Scotland, from the perspective of lived experience; believes that Scotland’s psychiatrist workforce is not growing sufficiently to keep pace with the well-documented rising scale of demand for services, nor, it considers, is it growing in line with almost all other medical professions; notes that, according to the report Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland Locum Psychiatry Survey – Report & Recommendations, locum psychiatrists have been appointed to fill the gaps in workforce and that an average of one in four consultant psychiatry positions are estimated to be vacant or filled by a locum across Scotland; considers that, across the two reports, it is clear that the widespread appointment of locum psychiatrists is associated with issues relating to quality assurance, patient safety, satisfaction and continuity of care, transparency, morale and stress of permanent colleagues, and cost, and highlights what is sees as the importance of the recommendations across the two reports, which emphasise the need to improve continuity and quality of patient care by reducing the reliance on locums in Scottish psychiatry, increase the number of permanent psychiatrists by focussing on retention and addressing job plans and working conditions, implementing a standardised system of transparent psychiatrist job titles/roles, which reflects the training and qualification levels achieved, increase funding and support to implement the core mental health standards across Scotland’s mental health sector, and ensure that the gradual cessation of non-qualified locums is delivered
Writing to your MSP? Suggested text below
Dear
S6M-17229: Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland Locum Psychiatry Survey – Report & Recommendations
I am contacting you to ask you to consider signing the above motion, in the name of Gillian Mackay MSP.
The motion welcomes the report Your Views: Psychiatrists in Scotland, by VOX Scotland, documenting the lived experiences of those who have received psychiatric care in Scotland over the past 5 years.
The findings show a direct correlation between access to a permanent psychiatrist over a sustained period of time and the quality and continuity of care received by individuals, with most respondents who received locum care having seen two or more psychiatrists, often resulting in low continuity of care, poorer outcomes and significant distress.
The motion also acknowledges the Locum Psychiatry Survey carried out by the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland highlighting workforce issues from the perspective of psychiatrists and the impact of a workforce which is not growing sufficiently to keep pace with the rising scale of demand for services.
Given the urgent need to address the lack of permanent psychiatrists, from both the perspective of care recipients and that of practitioners, Vox Scotland and the Royal College have joined forces to call for a systematic cessation of non-qualified locums acting as consultant psychiatrists.
The growing lack of permanent psychiatrists has already been recognised by the Scottish Government and they have established a Psychiatry Recruitment and Retention Working Group to look at how to address the issue. I understand the Group is due to finalise its report in the coming weeks and I would ask that you also consider writing or submitting a parliamentary question to the Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport asking how she plans to take the report forward.
In addition to recruitment and retention, Vox’s report also shows that there are a number of areas where action is desperately needed in the provision of psychiatry care across the board, including improving transitions for people moving within the mental health care system, and greater training and support to ensure the care provided aligns with all elements of the core mental health standards. Vox Scotland has raised these issues directly with the Minister and the team will be looking to work with the Scottish Government in the coming months to take them forward.
If you would like to discuss the Your Views report with the Vox team in more detail, or wider issues in relation to lived experience of mental ill health, please contact Heather Knox – hknox@mentalhealth.org.uk