Waiting Times

We are currently the in the process of developing and refining this information as a service to patients and referrers. There are many reasons why patients may have to wait to be seen (e.g. waiting for funding in non-Scottish Primary Care Trusts), but we wish to provide a reflection of how long it is likely to take before patients are seen.

Over the last 12 months, waiting times (recorded from receipt of referral to time of assessment) are as follows. These figures represent crude waiting times and do not take into account reasons why the time may have been longer. For example, delays in being forwarded additional requested information can increase the overall waiting time.

	Number of patients	Average waiting time (weeks) from referral to assessment (SD/ range)
Scotland	24	8.6 ± 3.7
England/ Wales	4	28.6
Northern Ireland	-	-
Eire	-	-

Important notes

1. Numbers for regions out with Scotland are small and such figures are unlikely to be representative for all referrals.
2. Referrals from outside of Scotland require confirmation of funding to be available before the patient can be seen. This means that there are delays if a patient from England is referred before funding is made available. The waiting time for English patients is likely to be very similar to Scottish patients if funding arrangements are established at the time of referral.

Information last updated: 1 August 2011

More detailed information (and reasons why some waiting times were longer than 15 weeks is available in our most recent annual report.