It doesn’t take long walking around Glasgow to see the extent and the impact of health and social inequalities.

Indeed, the city is often held up as an ­international example of inequality, exposing areas of vast wealth and crushing poverty barely a mile apart.

For the most part, the focus is on physical health.

It’s well-documented that those living in the more deprived areas of the city are more likely to get serious illnesses such as cancer, less likely to survive it when they do, and more vulnerable to issues like addiction, diabetes and at increased risk of suffering heart attacks and strokes.

They are less likely to attend for lifesaving screening, and children are more likely to experience issues such as obesity and poor dental health.

It is already a grim picture.

Now statistics published by Public Health Scotland have exposed another divide; that people living in areas of deprivation are significantly more likely to be admitted for psychiatric care than those from the wealthiest parts.

In Glasgow, the gulf is more severe than elsewhere.

Last year, 220 people from the city’s richest 20% were admitted to a mental health unit for treatment of a psychiatric condition. But for those in the poorest 20%, that figure shot up to 1595 patients.

In plain terms, if you live in one of the city’s deprived areas, you are seven times more likely to suffer from a mental health condition serious enough to warrant hospital care.

Across Scotland, the gap is smaller – the poorest are around three times more likely to be admitted.

It exposes two acute shortcomings of this Scottish Government: it has failed to deal with spiralling mental health problems, and it has failed to tackle inequality.

Ministers have repeatedly said they want mental health to have a parity of esteem with physical health, but there is mounting evidence – almost on a weekly basis – that this isn’t the case.

Constituents across Glasgow frequently tell me they simply cannot get a GP appointment when they need one.

They are regularly given the impression that doctors will only be able to see them if it is an emergency.

That, to most people, means a pressing physical condition; the culture is such that someone who requires mental health support probably won’t regard it as an “emergency” in those terms.

As a consequence, the support isn’t sought, isn’t received, and the problems stack up until it becomes so serious that attendance at hospital is required.

And it impacts every part of the health service and beyond – even the police say they spend a huge chunk of their time responding not to crime and disorder, but dealing with vulnerable people experiencing poor mental health.

As with everything, it’s the poorest who suffer most.

We know the health service is up against it, and resources for helping people seem to be more scarce than ever.

But the injustice at the heart of mental health is a genuine crisis, and will only spiral out of control if work doesn’t start to address it now.

The SNP government is never slow to talk about its commitment to supporting the poorest in society.

After 16 years in power, its record tells an altogether different story.