Question reference: S6W-18364
- Date lodged: 25 May 2023
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Current status: Answered by Maree Todd on 9 June 2023
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many GP surgeries there are; what percentage of those have dedicated mental health professionals, and how many (a) additional mental health professionals in GP surgeries have been recruited under Action 15 of the Mental Health Strategy 2017-2027 and (b) mental health professionals in total are based in GP surgeries, as of 1 May 2023.
Answer
There were 905 general practices in Scotland at 1 April 2023( General practice list size and demographics information - General practice data - General practice - Our areas of work - Public Health Scotland ).
The Scottish Government does not hold information on the percentage of general practices with dedicated mental health professionals; or on the total number of mental health professionals based in GP surgeries.
However, at 31 st March 2022, nearly 80% of GP practices across Scotland had access to a Mental Health Worker under either the Primary Care Improvement Fund (PCIF) and/or Action 15. Under Action 15, an additional 958.9 whole time equivalent (WTE) mental health roles had been filled by the end of the commitment in March 2022, including 356.1 WTE posts in GP practices. The final Action 15 figures up to 01 April 2022, were published on 12 July 2022 ( Mental health workers: quarterly performance reports - gov.scot(www.gov.scot).
We have allocated over £107 million since 2018-19 to enable recruitment to these posts and will continue to provide the necessary funding to ensure that these posts are protected in 2022-23 and beyond.
Under the PCIF, a total of 259.9 WTE mental health workers had been recruited at March 2022 ( Primary Care Improvement Plans: Summary of Implementation Progress at March 2022 ). PCIF data to March 2023 will be published in summer 2023.
There are also mental health professionals directly employed by general practices in addition to those employed under the PCIF and Action 15. These professionals are not separately identifiable within the published GP in-hours workforce survey results . We expect numbers to be relatively small.