Doug Naysmith, MP for Bristol North West, arrived at a Labour Conference health meeting this morning prepared to listen, but was asked to speak as a government minister had been delayed.  The meeting ‘Stand up for Mental Health’ was arranged by Mental Health Alliance, a coalition of groups campaigning for a better Mental Health Act to replace the outdated Act of 1983.

Doug Naysmith joined the call for government to introduce the long-promised legislation.  Doug, who is a member of the Health Select Committee, took part in the recent joint Commons and Lords pre-legislative scrutiny of the government’s now-abandoned Mental Health Bill.  He said, “It is time to act.  There is widespread agreement amongst all stakeholders about what needs to be done.  The report of the Joint Scrutiny Committee pointed the way and there is now no reason for the delay.

“Progressive legislation of the sort recommended has been introduced elsewhere – in Scotland and New Zealand – where it is working well.  It is hard to understand why there is continued delay in England and Wales.”

Later today Doug will be a speaker at the British Dental Association’s meeting ‘Still Queuing for a Dentist?’ which will review the workings of the new dental contract.

Doug will outline findings of the Health Select Committee report into charges in the NHS and the effects these have on the preventative work dentists want to do.