National drug and alcohol treatment waiting times
1 October 2021 to 31 December 2021
National Statistics Publication
- Published
- 05 April 2022
- Type
- Statistical report
- Author
- Public Health Scotland
About this release
This data release by Public Health Scotland reports on waiting times for people accessing specialist drug and alcohol treatment services between 1 October and 31 December 2021. 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 Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP) have been excluded from this release as the ADP was unable to confirm that their data were accurate and up-to-date within the specified timescale. Amongst the remaining ADPs, 13 services, out of 181, were excluded due to the absence of complete data.
Main points
- Of the 7,269 referrals to community-based specialist drug and alcohol treatment services completed in this quarter, 93% involved a wait of three weeks or less. Eleven of the 14 NHS Boards met the Standard during the quarter, NHS Lothian (excluding City of Edinburgh ADP; 82%), NHS Highland (79%) and NHS Tayside (74%) did not meet the Standard (Chart 1).
- Of the treatment referrals completed in this quarter, 4,001 were for people seeking help for problematic use of alcohol, 2,496 for problematic use of drugs and 772 for problematic use of both alcohol and drugs (co-dependency).
- The percentage of referrals completed within three weeks was similar across the groups of problematic substance use: alcohol (92%), drug (94%) and co-dependency (95%).
- At the end of the quarter, 2,030 treatment referrals were not complete. Of these, 725 (36%) referrals involved a wait of at least three weeks.
- Of the 327 referrals to prison-based specialist drug and alcohol treatment services completed within this quarter, 98% involved a wait of three weeks or less. Of these, 250 (76%) were for people seeking help for problematic use of drugs.
Note: City of Edinburgh Alcohol and Drug Partnership is excluded from these data.
Background
These data were extracted from the new Drug and Alcohol Information System (DAISy) and its predecessor the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Waiting Times (DATWT) database. DAISy was implemented in four NHS boards (Ayrshire & Arran, Dumfries & Galloway, Grampian and Western Isles) from December 2020, and was available in all NHS boards from April 2021.
Further information
The next release of this publication will be 28 June 2022.
General enquiries
If you have an enquiry relating to this publication, please email 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.