The NHS can't go on this way. Something needs to change or services will suffer – Euan McColm

As the NHS struggles to cope with the demand for its services, the pressure to focus on physical, rather than mental, health may increase

If we’re lucky, Christmas is a largely joyous occasion where the worst that might happen is a bit of inter-in-law passive aggression over the dinner table and any tears that fall are wiped away during the end credits of Ghosts. But we know that, for many people, the festive season can be deeply challenging. While Christmas brings happiness for most of us, for many others it intensifies feelings of loneliness and despair.

On an average day, volunteers at The Samaritans take around 10,000 calls from people struggling with their mental health. On Christmas Day this year, the charity was ready to take almost 15,000.

We’ve come some way as a society when it comes to the discussion of mental health issues. Within living memory for many of us, the subject was strictly taboo. Now, politicians promise ever-greater support for those in difficulty. A number have opened up about their own struggles. The upside to this shift in the way we view mental health issues is that more people are likely to seek help. Inevitably, that brings the downside of increased pressure on the NHS.

Cutting back on NHS mental health services would be a mistake (Picture: Nicolas Tucat/AFP via Getty Images)

According to new statistics obtained by the Scottish Liberal Democrats, the health service is struggling to meet demand. The Lib Dems found a pattern of extremely long waiting times across the country. In one case – in the NHS Highland area – a patient has been waiting more than eight years for therapy. In NHS Tayside, a patient waited five-and-a-half years for treatment, while in Lothian, one patient was on a list for five years.

Political talk on NHS is cheap

These cases are extreme examples but hundreds of patients face unacceptable waiting times. In NHS Lothian, for example, 220 people have waited more than two years to start therapy. In election campaign after election campaign, parties compete to be seen as the trusted guardians of the NHS. Leaders heap praise on medical staff and promise to slash waiting times.

We all know by now, surely, that – when it comes to the NHS – political talk is cheap. Despite endless promises of reform and improvement, the NHS continues to decline. Underfunded and unprepared for an increasing elderly population, the health service is on its knees. In the weeks before Christmas, a number of experts warned that, without a radical intervention, the Scottish NHS would collapse.

The instinct, in the current circumstances, may be to prioritise physical health problems. This, I think, would be a mistake. Illness of the mind can be every bit as life-threatening as illness of the flesh. There will not, I fear, be any relief to the pressure on the NHS until we all – politicians and public, alike – create the space for a serious discussion about what we expect from the service and how we’re willing to fund it.

Righteous politicians might feel an endorphin rush as they promise private health care will never be expected to take on some of the NHS’s burden but unless they’re willing to talk about significant tax rises to fund the service, their words are mere self-indulgence. If we want an NHS that’s able to meet the needs of patients – whether their ailment is physical or mental – we need to stop pretending the service can survive under the current funding model.

This is an emergency.