Partnerships vow to keep their promises

NHS Tayside has issued a joint response with Angus, Dundee and Perth and Kinross health and social care partnerships.

It maintains they will continue to work to keep their promise of listening and acting on what requires to be done to improve mental health care in the region.

A spokesman said: “We will now ensure the actions and recommendations are progressed through the improvement work already under way across mental health services Tayside.”

The statement added: “This HIS review coincided and overlapped with the final report of the independent inquiry into Mental Health Services in Tayside which was published by Dr David Strang in February 2020.

“The findings released are reflected in the 51 recommendations of the independent inquiry’s report, and they will be taken forward in our Listen Learn Change draft action plan, which was submitted to Scottish Government in June 2020.

“Our final action plan will be completed this month and include any further recommendations from this review, alongside the detailed work which is being progressed to improve mental health services across Tayside.

“We made a promise to the people of Tayside that we will ‘Listen, Learn and Change’ in response to the independent inquiry and the further actions which we will take from this report reinforce that pledge.

“As we move forward we will continue to refine our plans and ensure these voices feature strongly and influence the new Tayside-wide Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy which will be published in early 2021.”

In February of this year The Independent Inquiry Into Mental Health Services in Tayside published its Trust and Respect report and called for an urgent overhaul of the practices.

Addressing his findings at the time Dr David Strang (pictured) said the board had “lurched from crisis to crisis”.

Dr Strang said he’d been disappointed NHS Tayside appeared to not have listened and did not learn from previous incidents.