National drug and alcohol treatment waiting times
1 January 2024 to 31 March 2024
Accredited official statistics
- Published
- 25 June 2024
- 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 January and 31 March 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 Shetland Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP) have been excluded from this release as the ADP was unable to complete the compliance sign-off process within the specified timescale. As a result, NHS Board level data are also unavailable for NHS Shetland. Among the remaining ADPs, four services out of 203 were excluded due to incomplete data.
Main points
During the quarter ending 31 March 2024:
- 11,246 referrals were made to community-based specialist drug and alcohol treatment services: 5,753 (51.2%) were for problematic use of alcohol, 4,084 (36.3%) for problematic use of drugs, and 1,409 (12.5%) for co-dependency.
- 7,622 referrals to community-based services started treatment. Of these, 7,007 (91.9%) involved a wait of three weeks or less. Five NHS Boards did not meet the Standard (Highland, 89.1%; Lothian, 85.6%; Forth Valley, 82.5%; Western Isles, 77.2%; Orkney, 66.6%).
- Nationally, the Standard was met for referrals to community-based services across all substances: drugs (94.2%), co-dependency (91.1%) and alcohol (90.5%).
- 861 referrals were made to prison-based services. Of these, 689 (80.0%) were for people seeking help for problematic use of drugs.
- 345 referrals to prison-based services started treatment. Of these, 324 (93.9%) involved a wait of three weeks or less (co-dependency, 97.4%; alcohol, 97.1%; drugs, 92.2%).
As of 31 March 2024:
- 2,264 community-based service referrals had not started treatment. Of these, 361 (15.9%) involved a wait of more than three weeks.
- 39 prison-based service referrals had not started treatment. Of these, 24 (61.5%) 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 24 September 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.