ABSTRACT Aim In 2016, the Access and Waiting Time Standard (AWTS) was introduced in England, UK, outlining that people with first‐episode psychosis should receive treatment from an early intervention for psychosis (EIP) service within 2 weeks. We examined sociodemographic, pathways to care (PtC), and clinical factors associated with EIP service wait time. Method We collected de‐identified data from a large mental health provider in South London, UK. We included patients referred and accepted to EIP services as inpatient or community contacts between 1 May 2016 and 30 April 2019, providing 3 years of data from the introduction of AWTS. Descriptive statistics and multivariable linear regression were performed. Results A total of 1806 patients were identified with a mean age of 30 (SD: 10.7) years, of whom 86.3% ( n = 1559) accessed community EIP and 13.7% ( n = 247) accessed inpatient EIP; of these, 26.7% were not seen within 2 weeks. Community EIP patients waited longer adj.β = 2.21 days (95% CI: 2.05–2.37) compared with inpatient EIP patients, and being older was associated with longer wait time. Conversely, a shorter wait time was associated with A however, this difference diminished after adjusting for PtC and clinical factors. Conclusions Our findings indicate that individual factors, PtC, and mode of contact influence wait time for EIP services. More than a quarter of patients were not seen within 2 weeks, indicating that targeted support in community EIP services is needed to meet clinical guidelines.
Wood et al. (2025) studied this question.