SCOTS with long term health conditions are facing a postcode lottery of access to the support services they need to be able to live the life they want, a new report suggests.

New research for health and well-being charity the Thistle Foundation reveals that over one in three Scots households say they found it hard to get the right help for someone living with a long term health conditions - up from just less than one in four five years ago.

But the study also reveals huge regional differences on people's experiences over how easy or hard it is to access services for people with long-term illness.

Glasgow topped the 'difficulty' rankings with just over half of those surveyed (52%) saying they found accessing suitable support hard. In the south of Scotland it was 44%, in the north east it was 40% while in the west of Scotland it was 32%.

Lothians faired best out of the Scottish regions studied with one in four (25%) saying they experienced difficulty while it was 27% in central Scotland and 28% in Midlothian and Fife and Highlands and Islands.

Managing long-term conditions is seen as the biggest challenge facing health care systems worldwide, with 60 per cent of all deaths attributable to them.

In 2017, an Audit Scotland review found that services for people with long-term conditions were "improving" but added that there is "considerable progress to be made to provide cost-effective community-based care".

Commenting on the research findings, Thistle chief executive Diana Noel Paton said: "We were really quite taken aback to find out that actually the situation is worse, five years on. This is a really, really important and  increasingly urgent issue that we need to address."

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It comes nearly a fortnight after the First Minister pledged an extra £250m for mental health services as she announced her plans for the coming year at Holyrood.

Nicola Sturgeon noted that more must be done to "support positive mental health" amid rising demand for services.

Thistle said: "The research suggests there are regional variations in the percentage of households affected by long-term health conditions and how easy or difficult people with such conditions find it to access the support services they need to live the life they want.

"But across Scotland as a whole, significantly more people with long term conditions are now finding it difficult to find suitable support services than five years ago".

Publication of the new research findings coincides with an ongoing campaign by Thistle to ‘stop the wait’ as demand for its services from people living with long term health conditions has intensified, leading to sometimes lengthy waiting times at its Centre of Wellbeing in the Craigmillar area of Edinburgh.

Nicola Sturgeon officially opened the Thistle Foundation’s Centre of Wellbeing two years ago.

The Thistle-commissioned survey of 1000 Scots undertaken in late 2017, confirms that almost one in three Scottish households is now home to at least one person living with a long term illness, health problem or disability which hass remained stable since a previous survey undertaken in 2013.

Long-term conditions are defined by the research as being an illness, health problem or disability which has lasted, or is expected to last, at least 12 months.

Audit Scotland's 2017 report said that in order to provide more community services for people with long-term conditions, NHS boards, through community health partnerships need to "redesign services and transfer resources from acute to community settings".

It added: However, decisions on the best use of resources are currently being made on limited evidence – there is little information at a national or local level about the activity, cost and effectiveness of services for people with long-term conditions."

Progress in developing community-based services for asthma and diabetes had been good, but there were a number of "practical barriers" to providing better community services for all patients with long-term conditions, Audit Scotland said.

There was a need to join up health and social care provision more effectively and ensure that relevant staff have access to comprehensive information on people’s care needs and introduce real incentives for change.

Audit Scotland added that people with more than one long-term condition are less likely to be receiving joined-up care across all the services they receive.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We know how important it is for people with long term conditions to live independently and with the right support and care. That is why we are taking action to improve services, treatment and outcomes.

“We are investing record amounts in health and social care, with additional investment of over £550m in social care services and integration in the current financial year, as well as supporting a range of clinical research over the lifetime of this Parliament.

“Our self-directed support also enables carers and their families to make informed choices regarding the structure and delivery of the support they receive. Added to this, our extension of free personal care to people under 65 shows that we are committed to doing all we can to support everyone in need of social care.”