National drug and alcohol treatment waiting times
1 April 2022 to 30 June 2022

About this release

This data release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) reports on waiting times for people accessing specialist drug and alcohol treatment services between 1 April and 30 June 2022. 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 ten services, out of 204, were excluded from this release as the services were unable to confirm their data were accurate and up-to-date within the specified timescales.

Main points

• During the quarter, 11,316 referrals were made to community-based specialist drug and alcohol treatment services: 6,330 (56%) were for problematic use of alcohol, 3,786 (33%) for problematic use of drugs, and 1,200 (11%) for both alcohol and drugs (co-dependency).
• 8,708 referrals to community-based services started treatment during the quarter. Of these, 90.6% involved a wait of three weeks or less. Nine NHS Boards met the Standard during the quarter. NHS Grampian (89.9%), NHS Western Isles (86.7%), NHS Lothian (80.6%), NHS Highland (76.2%) and NHS Tayside (63.1%) did not meet the Standard.
• The Standard was met for referrals starting treatment for problematic use of drugs (91.5%) and for co-dependency (92.5%), but narrowly missed for alcohol (89.7%).
• At the end of the quarter, 2,489 community treatment referrals were not complete. Of these, 636 (26%) referrals involved a wait of more than three weeks.
• Of 10,234 treatments that commenced in the community during the quarter, the most common types across all substances were structured preparatory and motivational intervention (50-53% across substance types), and community-based support and/or rehabilitation (33-35% across substance types).
• 433 referrals were made to prison-based services during the quarter. Of these, 358 (83%) were for people seeking help for problematic use of drugs.
• 323 referrals to prison-based services started treatment during the quarter. Of these, 94.7% involved a wait of three weeks or less.

Bar chart illustrates each NHS Board’s percentage of community referrals completed within three weeks, against a Standard of 90% in the quarter ending June 2022. Scotland overall has a completion rate of 90.6%. NHS Grampian (89.9%), NHS Western Isles (86.7%), NHS Lothian (80.6%), NHS Highland (76.2%) and NHS Tayside (63.1%) did not meet the Standard. The chart shows that the remaining nine NHS Boards each have between 92.6% and 100.0% of referrals completed within three weeks.

Close

Percentage of completed community referrals with a wait of three weeks or less, by NHS Board (1 April to 30 June 2022)

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 20 December 2022.