National drug and alcohol treatment waiting times
1 July 2022 to 30 September 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 July and 30 September 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 City of Edinburgh and Shetland Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) have been excluded from this release as neither ADP was able to confirm their data were accurate and up-to-date within the specified timescale. Amongst the remaining ADPs, ten services, out of 176, were excluded due to the absence of complete data.

Main points

• During the quarter, 10,117 referrals were made to community-based specialist drug and alcohol treatment services: 5,757 (57%) were for problematic use of alcohol, 3,278 (32%) for problematic use of drugs, and 1,082 (11%) for both alcohol and drugs (co-dependency).
• 7,363 referrals to community-based services started treatment during the quarter. Overall, 92% involved a wait of three weeks or less. Of the 13 NHS Boards submitting data, eight met the Standard and five did not (NHS Forth Valley (89%), NHS Highland (86%), NHS Orkney (83%), NHS Lothian (excluding City of Edinburgh ADP) (79%) and NHS Tayside (67%)).
• Nationally, the Standard was met for referrals starting treatment across all substances: problematic use of drugs (94%), alcohol (91%) and co-dependency (93%).
• At the end of the quarter, 2,032 community treatment referrals were not complete. Of these, 510 (25%) involved a wait of more than three weeks.
• The most common community treatments commenced during the quarter were structured preparatory and motivational intervention (48-58% across substance types), and community-based support and/or rehabilitation (30-34% across substance types).
• 716 referrals were made to prison-based services during the quarter. Of these, 628 (88%) were for people seeking help for problematic use of drugs.
• 273 referrals to prison-based services started treatment during the quarter. Of these, 96% 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 September 2022. Scotland overall has a completion rate of 92%. NHS Forth Valley (89%), NHS Highland (86%), NHS Orkney (83%), NHS Lothian (excluding City of Edinburgh ADP) (79%) and NHS Tayside (67%) did not meet the Standard. The chart shows that the remaining eight NHS Boards that submitted data each have between 92% and 100% of referrals completed within three weeks. NHS Shetland is not shown on the chart as the area was unable to confirm their data within the specified timescales. The NHS Lothian figure excludes City of Edinburgh ADP for the same reason.

Close

Percentage of completed community referrals with a wait of three weeks or less, by NHS Board (1 July to 30 September 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 28 March 2023.