It comes as the manager of a York healthcare watchdog warns that “nothing has changed” since The Press reported how thousands of people were facing lengthy waits for an autism diagnosis at the end of last year.
NHS England figures show there were 204,876 patients with an open referral for suspected autism across the country in September, a 27 per cent rise from 161,827 the year before.
In the NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board area, 6,270 patients were waiting for an autism assessment, up from 5,290 last year.
Of these, 81 per cent (5,110) had a referral that had been open at least 13 weeks.
The NHS target is for every patient with a referral to receive a first appointment within 13 weeks.
Just two per cent of the patients with an open referral for more than 13 weeks entering September in North Yorkshire and the Humber received a first appointment that month.
Recommended reading:
- ‘I feel very stressed’: Parents of autistic children in York reveal heartache
- 'Extreme concern' over big rise in patients waiting months for autism diagnosis
- York patients 'abandoned' by lack of autism referrals
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