National drug and alcohol treatment waiting times
1 April 2024 to 30 June 2024
Accredited official statistics
- Published
- 24 September 2024 (Latest release)
- Type
- Statistical report
- Author
- Public Health Scotland
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 April 2024 and 30 June 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.
Data from Orkney Islands Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP) and Shetland Islands ADP have been excluded from this release as these ADPs were unable to complete the compliance sign-off process within the specified timescale. As a result, NHS Board level data are also unavailable for NHS Orkney and NHS Shetland. Among the remaining ADPs, four services out of 200 were excluded due to incomplete data.
Main points
During the quarter ending 30 June 2024:
- 10,688 referrals were made to community-based specialist drug and alcohol treatment services: 5,432 (50.8%) were for problematic use of alcohol, 3,770 (35.3%) for problematic use of drugs, and 1,486 (13.9%) for co-dependency.
- 7,361 referrals to community-based services started treatment. Of these, 6,860 (93.2%) involved a wait of three weeks or less. Three NHS Boards did not meet the Standard (Tayside, 89.6%; Highland, 87.2%; Lothian, 86.8%).
- Nationally, the Standard was met for referrals to community-based services across all substances: drugs (95.1%), alcohol (92.2%) and co-dependency (92.1%).
- 1,113 referrals were made to prison-based services. Of these, 890 (80.0%) were for people seeking help for problematic use of drugs.
- 400 referrals to prison-based services started treatment. Of these, 380 (95.0%) involved a wait of three weeks or less (alcohol, 96.9%; co-dependency, 95.9%; drugs, 94.5%).
As of 30 June 2024:
- 2,142 community-based service referrals had not started treatment. Of these, 307 (14.3%) involved a wait of more than three weeks.
- 40 prison-based service referrals had not started treatment. Of these, 16 (40.0%) involved a wait of more than three weeks.
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 17 December 2024.
General enquiries
If you have an enquiry relating to this publication, please contact Nadia Palma at phs.drugsteam@phs.scot.
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Older versions of this publication
Versions of this publication released before 16 March 2020 may be found on the Data and Intelligence, Health Protection Scotland or Improving Health websites.