Mental Health Services: Waiting Lists

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the (a) median and (b) mean waiting times for patients waiting to see mental health specialists as (i) an out-patient first attendance and (ii) an in-patient admission were in each year since 1997. (137389)

The information is shown in the following table. It should be noted that waiting times collected by the Department relate to consultant-led services only.

*Commissioner based waiting time information for mental health specialties, 1997 to 2007*
		Out-patient appointment	In-patient admission
Month end		Mean (weeks)	Median (weeks)	Mean (weeks)	Median (weeks)
June	1997	7.2	4.1	12.5	9.8
March	1998	6.5	3.8	12.6	9.7
March	1999	6.5	3.7	12.1	8.8
March	2000	6.9	3.8	12.6	8.5
March	2001	6.8	3.8	10.5	8.7
March	2002	7.3	4.0	9.9	8.1
March	2003	6.2	4.3	9.2	7.5
March	2004¹	5.5	3.9	9.3	8.1
March	2005¹	5.2	3.7	6.6	5.3
March	2006¹	5.2	3.8	6.1	4.2
December	2006¹	4.0	3.3	4.2	3.4
March	2007¹	n/a	n/a	3.9	3.1
¹Total in-patient waiting lists below 100 people for mental health specialties. It should be noted that for these low numbers the mean and median waiting times are prone to fluctuations. Notes: 1. The figures are based on combined data from the following mental health specialties: Mental Illness, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Forensic Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Old Age Psychiatry. 2. In-patient waiting time based on mean/median wait of those still waiting at end of period. Out-patient waiting times based on time waited for those seen during the quarter. Source: Department of Health, QF01 and QMO8rs

Volume 460: debated on Thursday 24 May 2007