Thank you very much for contacting me about MIND Cymru’s “Too Long to Wait” report on waiting times for psychological therapies.
I will be happy to support Mind Cymru’s campaign and will share my support through my social media channels.
There is no doubt that the challenges posed by the COVID-19 outbreak and the restrictions that were placed on our ordinary lives have exposed the important need to improve mental healthcare.
Even before the pandemic, Wales’ mental health services were struggling to meet the demand and the Welsh Labour-led Government has been slow to respond. It is shocking that, despite 1 in 4 people likely to experience a mental health problem in any given year, only 12% of people in Wales report receiving treatment.
Mental health has often been treated as a ‘Cinderella Service’ by the Welsh Labour-led Government, with a lack of parity of funding to physical health needs, despite clear links between poor mental health and poor physical health. Welsh Conservatives led a debate recently on NHS waiting times, which included the necessity of transforming mental health by treating it with the same urgency as physical health.
My colleagues and I in the Welsh Conservatives are clear that more needs to be done to enable quick access to excellent mental health services, which includes recruiting more specialists to the Welsh NHS workforce. This is why we have previously announced a “Recruit, Train, Retain” workforce plan, which covers all areas of the Welsh NHS, as well as outlining the need for 2,000 extra nurses – including mental health nurses – and 1,200 doctors. In addition, we want to introduce specific waiting times for mental health services, and a guarantee for patients who are on NHS waiting lists to wait no more than a year for treatment.
Furthermore, as part of Welsh Conservatives’ COVID-19 Management Plan, we would appoint a dedicated COVID-19 Recovery Minister in the Welsh Government, who would oversee all areas of COVID-19 recovery in the Welsh NHS. The Plan would also urgently establish routes to support for people who are suffering with mental health problems which stem from the pandemic.
Finally, I would like to reassure you that Welsh Conservatives will continue to treat the issues encountered by users of mental health services with the utmost urgency and seriousness.
Thank you again for taking the time to write to me.
Yours sincerely
Mark