NHS England must monitor autism diagnosis waiting times, advises NAS

The National Autistic Society (NAS) has called upon the NHS to monitor the amount of time it takes for autism to be diagnosed.

The NAS said that delays between being referred to an autism specialist and diagnosis are ‘unacceptably long’ and are putting ‘families into crisis’.

A report by Public Health England (PHE) has found that there is a huge disparity in waiting times across England, which showed people in the South West of England were waiting as long as 95 weeks between a referral to an autism specialist and a diagnosis. The medium wait across England was 13 weeks, whilst the national guidelines from NICE direct that wait between referral and diagnosis should not exceed 12 weeks.

Jane Harris, director of external affairs at the NAS, spoke to the Victorial Derbyshire programme about why the situation was a concern. She said: "At the moment people are waiting months - if not years - for a first appointment. If they're adults that might mean losing their job, if they're children they might be excluded from school. It can be really difficult.

"You can know that there's something wrong but not what. At least when you know, there's then a coping mechanism to deal with it, people know where to get support."

The NAS claimed part of the problem was thanks to more awareness of autism, which has led to an increased amount of referrals and thus further delays in the system. However, it says the issues are largely due to a lack of monitoring, adding it would be difficult to solve the issue as the reasons for delays are likely to differ according to each region.

Harris added: "The NHS needs to look at autism in the way it looks at other treatments - there's a waiting time for conditions from depression to hip operations."

An NHS England spokesman said: "Diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders should of course happen as soon as possible, but is often complex and involves many different professionals and agencies.

"This is an issue we take very seriously and we have committed to working with local areas to identify and overcome the reasons behind long waiting times. We'll continue to work with NAS and others to make sure people with autism can get the help they need, when they need it.”

A Department of Health (DoH) spokeswoman said: "The guidelines on autism make it crystal clear that families should wait no more than three months to start diagnosis. Every bit of the NHS should be adhering to these guidelines and NHS England is working with local areas to make sure these waiting times are cut."