Question reference: S5W-00359
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
- Date lodged: 1 June 2016
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Current status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 16 June 2016
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to establish new dedicated inpatient mental health beds for children and young people north of Dundee.
Answer
Children and young people referred to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) will be generally treated in the community. There may however be times when it is necessary to admit them to hospital for specialist treatment. Should this be the case they would be admitted to one of the three regional CAMHS inpatient units.
It is important that beds are available when required. In order to provide support this, a decision was taken by the north of Scotland NHS boards to build a new 12 bed unit in Dundee (Dudhope House) to replace the current 6 bed unit. This has increased the national bed base from 42 to 48 beds and improve the quality of the estate.
Dudhope House in Dundee followed an extensive consultation which considered the merits of basing a unit in Aberdeen, Inverness and the current facility in Dundee.