'Shameful' one-year wait for drug addicts seeking help

Published on Tuesday 31 March 2009 23:10

MORE than a quarter of drug addicts seeking treatment have waited more than a year just to be assessed, official figures showed yesterday.

New health service figures show some 554 addicts waited more than 52 weeks for an appointment to be assessed, while hundreds more had to wait as long for treatment after a care plan had been agreed.

Annabel Goldie, the Scottish Conservatives' leader, yesterday branded the figures "shameful".

"When an addict is ready to accept help, help should be given within days, not years," she said.

"This demonstrates why a new national drugs strategy, focusing on recovery, is so badly needed to combat a problem that is still not being properly addressed."

The figures cover the period between October and December last year and include 22 of the country's 23 alcohol and drugs action teams.

Richard Simpson, Labour's public health spokesman, called on the Scottish Government to show "much more urgency" in reducing waiting times.

"We know from bitter experience that the success of any drugs policy depends on helping addicts to break their addiction," he said.

Ross Finnie, the Liberal Democrats' health spokesman, said:

"Leaving people lingering on waiting lists for a year only increases the risk of them falling back into continued drug abuse."

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said the figures showed a 10 per cent improvement in waiting times for referral to assessment and a 20 per cent improvement in the time waited for any intervention.

But she added: "It is unacceptable that people have to wait months to get the help that they are seeking."