Question reference: S6W-25597
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 19 February 2024
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Current status: Answered by Maree Todd on 4 March 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many patients have been referred to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS); what proportion of patients have waited more than a year on CAMHS waiting lists; what proportion of patients have started treatment within 10 weeks of referral, and how many CAMHS specialists have been available, in each NHS board in each of the last three years.
Answer
CAMHS Referrals
Information on patients referred to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) is as follows. The data is not currently available for quarter October 2023 – December 2023. As such the following figures for 2023 only cover January – September. Information for quarter October – December 2023 is expected to be published on 5 March 2024.
2021 | 2022 | 2023 (Jan - Sep) | |
NHS Ayrshire & Arran | 2131 | 2620 | 2241 |
NHS Borders | 696 | 860 | 639 |
NHS Dumfries & Galloway | 1261 | 1591 | 1185 |
NHS Fife | 3178 | 2910 | 2188 |
NHS Forth Valley | 1649 | 1453 | 1509 |
NHS Grampian | 3738 | 3738 | 2746 |
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde | 8299 | 8906 | 6390 |
NHS Highland | 1838 | 1678 | 1203 |
NHS Lanarkshire | 3826 | 3575 | 2517 |
NHS Lothian | 6989 | 7880 | 5636 |
NHS Orkney | 16 | 114 | 122 |
NHS Shetland | 134 | 152 | 95 |
NHS Tayside | 2076 | 2404 | 1719 |
NHS Western Isles | 164 | 158 | 95 |
One-Year Waiting Lists
We have seen transformational improvements in CAMHS waiting lists in the last year, and this has continued during the latest quarter. Children waiting over 52 weeks has decreased by 88% since end September 2022 – a reduction of 1,105 (down from 1,252 to 147).
Waiting list data for CAMHS is taken at the end of each month, and only contains data of the number of patients waiting within specific wait bands at that point. As such it is not possible to identify individual patients journey within the present Public Health Scotland publication PHS CAMHS Waiting Times . This publication provides data on waiting lists at the end of each month and for each health board.
Treatment Within 10-weeks of Referral
Patients starting treatment are divided into 4 wait bands 0-18 weeks, 19-35 weeks, 36-52 weeks and 53 weeks plus. Information therefore on patients starting treatment within 10 weeks is not available. Boards continue to respond to high demand for CAMHS, with statistics showing that 1 in 2 people referred to CAMHS start treatment within 10 weeks. Further data information on CAMHS patients starting treatment is publicly available via Public Health Scotland: PHS CAMHS Waiting Times .
CAMHS Specialists in Each Board
Child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) workforce data is publicly available in NHS Education for Scotland (NES) Turas Data Intelligence at: NHS Scotland Workforce Data . This provides data on staff joining and leaving rates by Health Board.