CRAIG Hoy, a Conservative MSP for South Scotland, has warned that a drop in the number of people starting alcohol treatment in the Scottish Borders is “deeply alarming” after attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in Selkirk with John Lamont MP.
Figures obtained by Scottish Conservative MSP Miles Briggs, from SNP Drugs and Alcohol Minister Elena Whitham, show that across Scotland the number receiving treatment has fallen by 40 per cent. In 2013/14, 32,556 accessed alcohol treatment programmes, but by 2021/22 that figure had dropped to 19,617.
In NHS Borders, there has been a 28-percentage drop in those accessing programme. In 2013/14 in 431 patients in the Borders accessed programmes, but in 2021/22 that figure stood at only 310.
The figures come against a backdrop of 1,276 people losing their lives to alcohol last year in Scotland, the highest number since 2008.
Craig Hoy MSP says the figures should be an urgent wake-up call for SNP ministers and must be the catalyst for them to finally back the Right to Recovery Bill in Parliament. That would enshrine in law a right to access treatment for anyone the Scottish Borders who needs it most.
Craig Hoy MSP said: “The drop in the number of people accessing alcohol treatment programme in the Borders is deeply alarming. It is a shameful reflection of how the SNP have mishandled Scotland’s problems with alcohol that there has been a 28% drop in the numbers accessing treatment programmes since 2013/14 in the Borders.
“It is astonishing SNP ministers would allow treatment places to be so dramatically reduced in the Borders at a time when alcohol deaths across the country are at their highest level since 2008. We know that these cuts will be impacting people living in the most deprived communities in the Borders the most, just as we have seen with the SNP’s failure to tackle Scotland’s drug death emergency.
“These concerning findings only reaffirm the need for SNP ministers to finally back the Right to Recovery Bill. This legislation would enshrine in law the right for those suffering from addiction in the Borders to receive potentially life-saving treatment and has been backed by frontline experts and charities.
“I will continue to urge the SNP-Green government to give this bill their backing, so it becomes law as quickly as possible.”
