National drug and alcohol treatment waiting times
1 July 2024 to 30 September 2024

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) reports on waiting times for people accessing specialist drug and alcohol treatment services between 1 July 2024 and 30 September 2024.

In 2011, the Scottish Government set a Standard that 90% of people referred for help with problematic drug or alcohol use will wait no longer than three weeks for specialist treatment that supports their recovery.

Among the 30 Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs), two services out of 202 were excluded due to incomplete data.

Main points

During the quarter ending 30 September 2024:

• 10,919 referrals were made to community-based specialist drug and alcohol treatment services: 5,493 (50.3%) were for problematic use of alcohol, 3,910 (35.8%) for problematic use of drugs, and 1,516 (13.9%) for co-dependency (use of both alcohol and drugs).
• 7,454 referrals to community-based services started treatment. Of these, 6,976 (93.6%) involved a wait of three weeks or less. Four NHS Boards did not meet the Standard (Lothian, 89.8%; Western Isles, 89.3%; Shetland, 78.9%; Highland, 72.3%).
• Nationally, the Standard was met for referrals to community-based services across all substances: drugs (95.6%), alcohol (92.6%) and co-dependency (92.2%).
• 1,004 referrals were made to prison-based services. Of these, 816 (81.3%) were for people seeking help for problematic use of drugs.
• 357 referrals to prison-based services started treatment. Of these, 342 (95.8%) involved a wait of three weeks or less (alcohol, 100.0%; co-dependency, 97.7%; drugs, 94.7%).
• 2,239 community-based service referrals had not started treatment. Of these, 323 (14.4%) involved a wait of more than three weeks.
• 31 prison-based service referrals had not started treatment. Of these, 13 (41.9%) involved a wait of more than three weeks.

As of 30 September 2024:

• 2,239 community-based service referrals had not started treatment. Of these, 323 (14.4%) involved a wait of more than three weeks.
• 31 prison-based service referrals had not started treatment. Of these, 13 (41.9%) involved a wait of more than three weeks.

Bar chart illustrating the percentage of community referrals completed within three weeks against the Standard of 90% for each NHS Board in the quarter ending 30 September 2024. Scotland overall has a completion rate of 93.6%. Among the 14 NHS Boards, ten met the Standard during the quarter while four did not.

Close

Percentage of completed community referrals with a wait of three weeks or less, by NHS Board (1 July 2024 to 30 September 2024)

Background

These data were extracted from the Drug and Alcohol Information System (DAISy) and its predecessor the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Waiting Times (DATWT) database.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be 25 March 2025.

We have recently published a report summarising the responses to PHS’s customer survey on the quarterly National Drug and Alcohol Treatment Waiting Times publication.