National drug and alcohol treatment waiting times
1 October 2022 to 31 December 2022

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 October and 31 December 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. Amongst Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADP), ten services, out of 204, were excluded due to the absence of complete data.

Main points

• During the quarter, 9,845 referrals were made to community-based specialist drug and alcohol treatment services: 5,029 (51%) were for problematic use of alcohol, 3,698 (38%) for problematic use of drugs, and 1,118 (11%) for co-dependency.
• 7,118 referrals to community-based services started treatment during the quarter. Overall, 91% involved a wait of three weeks or less. Eleven of the 14 NHS Boards met the Standard and three did not (Highland (84%), Tayside (81%) and Lothian (80%)).
• Nationally, the Standard was met for referrals to community-based services starting treatment for co-dependency (94%), and problematic use of drugs (93%). The Standard was not met for those starting treatment for alcohol (89%).
• At the end of the quarter, 2,018 community treatment referrals had not started treatment. Of these, 505 (25%) involved a wait of more than three weeks.
• The most common treatments commenced during the quarter at community-based services were structured preparatory and motivational intervention (47 to 54% across substance types), and community-based support and/or rehabilitation (34 to 41% across substance types).
• 717 referrals were made to prison-based services during the quarter. Of these, 590 (82%) were for people seeking help for problematic use of drugs.
• 325 referrals to prison-based services started treatment during the quarter. Of these, 95% involved a wait of three weeks or less (Alcohol; 97%, Drugs; 94%, Co-dependency; 97%).

Bar chart illustrates each NHS Board’s percentage of community referrals completed within three weeks against a Standard of 90% in the quarter ending December 2022. Scotland overall has a completion rate of 91%. NHS Highland (84%), NHS Tayside (81%) and NHS Lothian (80%) did not meet the Standard for all substance types during this quarter. The chart shows that the remaining eight NHS Boards that submitted data each have between 92% 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 October to 31 December 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 27 June 2023.