Yousaf accused of ‘failing’ family while health secretary

Anas Sarwar raised the case of a child who waited throughout Humza Yousaf’s tenure in the role for mental health treatment.

Humza Yousaf was asked about the case of the boy during his First Minister’s Questions debut (Andrew Milligan/PA) (PA Wire)

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has accused the First Minister of “failing” a family whose son has waited years for mental health treatment, asking “how will First Minister Humza Yousaf be any different?”

At the newly-minted SNP leader’s debut appearance at First Minister’s Questions, Mr Sarwar raised his record while in charge of the NHS, claiming 11,000 children had waited longer than the 18-week target time between referral and access to mental health treatment and 14,000 had their referrals rejected during Mr Yousaf’s tenure.

Mr Sarwar, who asked the First Minister to apologise to the families of those children, raised the specific case of 10-year-old Alan Galbraith from Dumbarton, who had been waiting for treatment throughout the entirety of Mr Yousaf’s time as health secretary.