Ministers urged to up the pace on mental health staff recruitment

Emma Walker said long waits for treatment will continue if rate of recruitment doesn't improve.

The Scottish Government has been urged to "pick up the pace" if it is to meet its target of recruiting 800 mental health staff by 2022.

Plans to increase the number of mental health staff in hospitals, GP surgeries, prisons and police stations were set out in the Government's Mental Health Strategy introduced in 2017.

But a quarterly performance report published on Friday shows 186 whole-time equivalent mental health workers were in a post as of April 1.

The figures include 40 mental health staff in A&E, three working in a custody suite, 66 in GP practices, and six in prisons.

A total of 77 workers were recorded as being in posts categorised under "other settings".

All 31 Integration Authorities in Scotland had provided detailed data on their confirmed and planned staffing to the Scottish Government.

Scottish Liberal Democrat mental health spokeswoman