Latest report on CAMHS waiting times

Date: 10th September 2015
Category: Mental health

The Scottish Children's Services Coalition (SCSC) has urged the Scottish Government to act urgently to ensure that NHS Health Boards achieve waiting time targets for access to Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).

The call came as the latest CAMHS wait times figures were published on the 25th August 2015 and cover the quarter from April to June 2015.

The new figures indicate that for Scotland's 14 Health Boards as a whole 85.2% of people are being seen within a 26 week target from referral to treatment. This target dates from March 2013. 76.6% are being seen within an 18 week target dating from December 2014. Both these are failing to reach the 90% target set by the Scottish Government.

10 of the 14 Health Boards currently achieve the 26 week waiting time target, with the 4 who haven't being NHS Forth Valley (77.3%), NHS Tayside (44.4%), NHS Fife (89.7%) and NHS Lothian (69.5%).

6 of the 14 Health Boards currently achieve the 18-week waiting time target, except for NHS Borders (86.9%), NHS Lanarkshire (89.6%), NHS Fife (78.2%), NHS Forth Valley (50.0%), NHS Grampian (70.6%), NHS Lothian (58.3%), NHS Shetland (85.7%) and NHS Tayside (36.9%).

The SCSC issued a news release in reaction to these figures, calling on the Scottish Government to provide support for the Health Boards that were failing to meet the targets to ensure that the children and young people requiring these services do not miss out.