National drug and alcohol treatment waiting times
1 July 2023 to 30 September 2023

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 and 30 September 2023. 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. Amongst the remaining ADPs, four services out of 204 were excluded due to incomplete data.

Main points

During the quarter ending 30 September 2023:

• 11,476 referrals were made to community-based specialist drug and alcohol treatment services: 5,910 (51.5%) were for problematic use of alcohol, 4,150 (36.2%) for problematic use of drugs, and 1,416 (12.3%) for co-dependency.
• 7,949 referrals to community-based services started treatment. Of these, 92.3% involved a wait of three weeks or less. Five of the 13 NHS Boards reporting data did not meet the Standard (Lanarkshire, 89.9%; Forth Valley, 86.9%; Lothian, 83.1%; Fife, 82.9%; Western Isles, 80.0%).
• Nationally, the Standard was met for referrals to community-based services across all substances: drugs (94.0%), co-dependency (92.4%) and alcohol (91.1%).
• 802 referrals were made to prison-based services. Of these, 666 (83.0%) were for people seeking help for problematic use of drugs.
• 309 referrals to prison-based services started treatment. Of these, 92.2% involved a wait of three weeks or less (alcohol, 100.0%; co-dependency, 100.0%; drugs, 89.5%).

As at 30 September 2023 2,522 community-based service referrals had not started treatment. Of these, 534 (21.1%) involved a wait of more than three weeks.

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 2023. Scotland overall has a completion rate of 92%. NHS Forth Valley (87%), NHS Lothian (83%), NHS Fife (83%) and NHS Western Isles (80%) did not meet the Standard for all substance types during this quarter. The chart shows that the remaining 10 NHS Boards that submitted data each have between 94% and 100% of referrals completed within three weeks.

Close

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

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 26 March 2024.