AQW 1354/22-27


Mr Peter McReynolds
Alliance Party
East Belfast


Tabled Date: 13/06/2022
Answered On Date: 17/06/2022
Priority Written: No


Question:
To ask the Minister of Health how long, on average, it takes an adult to receive their autism diagnosis assessment, broken down by Health and Social Care Trust.


Answer:
The average length of time it takes an adult to receive an autism diagnosis assessment is not collected by my Department; however, the number of adults waiting for an autism assessment following a referral by wait time for each Health and Social Care (HSC) Trust is presented in Table 1.
Table 1: Number of adults waiting for an autism assessment following referral by Health and Social Care (HSC) Trust and time waiting at 31 March 2022
HSC Trust
Number of adults waiting for an autism assessment by wait time
Total
0-13 weeks
>13-26 weeks
>26-39 weeks
>39-52 weeks
>52 weeks
Belfast
0
32
21
31
446
520
South Eastern
61
53
45
44
85
288
Southern
37
28
9
12
192
278
Western
27
27
21
24
89
188
Northern Ireland
125
130
96
111
812
1,274
Source: Monthly Adult’s Autism Waiting Times Trust Returns, SPPG.
Note: Information from the Northern HSC Trust for 2021/22 is currently unavailable due to ongoing issues with their IT system migration.