Fife missing target to treat patients for psychological therapy

The data from February also revealed that approximately 30% of people are waiting 18 weeks or more for treatment - the target is for 90% to begin therapy within 18 weeks of referral. In Fife, only 69.9% of patients were seen within that time frame.

The service is amongst the lowest quartile for performance compared to other NHS boards in December.

Fife Health and Social Care Partnership explained that psychological therapies are wide in range and designed to “help people understand and make changes to their thinking, behaviour and relationships in order to relieve distress and to improve functioning.” They can include treatments such as counselling, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and more intensive therapeutic intervention for complex trauma.

“The numbers treated in the latest reporting period remain high (599) with a higher than usual number of patients (62) who had waited over 52 weeks being taken on for treatment this month,” the latest NHS Fife performance report stated.

The number of patients waiting more than 18 weeks has increased yet again for the local board. Last May, 76.5% of patients were seen within 18 weeks of referral - nearly seven percentage points better than this year’s latest figures.

However, NHS Fife representatives say that the decrease has been caused by an increased emphasis on getting those waiting the longest into treatment.

“While positive from a service perspective, starting treatment for a higher percentage of patients who have waited over 18 weeks, negatively impacts performance on the target and this fell below 70% this month,” the report stated. “The overall waiting list has increased to 2,500 but with a reduction in the number waiting over 18 weeks (42.6%) compared to February 2022 (50.1%). The number of patients over 52 weeks has decreased below 300 from over 500 at the end of February 2022.”

A spokesperson for Fife Health and Social Care Partnership said: "Psychological therapies are provided for a wide section of the population. As would be expected, there are continual changes to the numbers of people waiting as new patients begin therapy, and others conclude their treatment."

“We are committed to ensuring timely access to our psychology services with increased investment in our services, a focus on recruitment of specialist staff and working with partner organisations to deliver supporting services for people in Fife.

"We are determined to minimise the length of time people in Fife wait for such treatments and continue to work towards delivering the Scottish Government’s ambition that 90 percent of individuals will be seen within 18 weeks of referral.”