NHS Forth Valley continues to deliver improvements in a number of key areas, including child mental health services and cancer treatment.

Changes in the way local Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) are designed and delivered across NHS Forth Valley has resulted in reduced waiting times for young people experiencing severe and complex mental ill health.

As a result, the Board not only met the national waiting times target for the first time earlier this year but has also managed to maintain and improve performance over the last six months. Waiting time figures for July 2024 show 98% of patients referred to CAMHS started treatment within 18 weeks, well above the national average of 83% and exceeding the national waiting times target of 90%. The service continues to work alongside partners in local councils to help increase access to a range of new services which aim to make it quicker and easier for children and young people to get support at an early stage.

Cancer waiting time figures have also seen marked improvement, with 100% of patients beginning treatment within 31 days of the decision to treat, exceeding the national cancer treatment target of 95%. Performance in relation to the 62-day cancer target is also well above the national Scottish average as in the period April to June 2024 83% of local patients waited less than 62 days from urgent suspicion of cancer referral to first cancer treatment, compared to an average of 73% across the rest of Scotland. Work continues to maintain and build on this performance over the coming months.

In addition, the number of people waiting for a first outpatient appointment has reduced significantly over the last year (from 19,902 in July 2023 to 13,740 in July 2024) – a reduction of 30%. The number of people waiting beyond 12 weeks has also halved in the same period. This is due to an increase in activity which has continued over the last quarter with more appointments being delivered, exceeding the figure forecast in the Board’s annual delivery plan for 2024/25.

Kerry Mackenzie, NHS Forth Valley Acting Director for Strategic Planning and Performance, said: “Significant progress has been made in reducing cancer and mental health waiting however we recognise that there is still more to do in a number of service areas. These include psychological therapies where, although our performance has improved in recent months, it is still below the national average.

“We are also continuing to work closely with colleagues to reduce waiting times for local patients who require more specialist tests and treatments in other regional or national centres out with our area, including the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre in Glasgow.”