Figures show rise in number of Scots patients affected by bed blocking
The number of patients kept in hospital after being told they were well enough to leave has increased, according to new figures.
Official statistics from a census carried out in hospitals in April found 1,377 people had to remain in hospital due to delayed discharge, also known as bed blocking.
The figure has risen slightly from the 1,339 recorded the previous month, after falling for three consecutive months.
The report by ISD Scotland shows that despite the rise in patients affected, the number of overall days spent in hospital due to bed blocking fell to 40,952 in April from 41,493 in March.
Delayed discharge happens when patients are clinically ready to leave hospital but are waiting for the necessary care and accommodation arrangements to be put in place.
A total of 1,085 patients were delayed for more than three days – down by four on the previous month – while 59 patients were delayed by at least six months and 22 spent more than a year waiting to leave hospital, the census found.
The number of patients waiting to leave for health and social care reasons such as needing assessment, funding, lack of places, care arrangements or transport fell to under 1,000 for the first time since December at 988 and is at the lowest level since July.
Other reasons for delay were due to patient and family-related reasons, such as legal issues or disagreements, in 49 cases and the complex needs of the patient in 340 cases.
Health Secretary Shona Robison said: “It’s very encouraging to see our integration of health and social care creating momentum in reducing delayed discharge as we put the individual at the heart of this transformational change.
“Our key indicators are reducing the number of people delayed over three days and reducing overall bed days, and these figures show further progress, continuing the downward trend we’ve seen over the last two years.
“We’ve also seen a reduction in health and social care delays over three days for the fourth month in a row and these delays are now at their lowest since recording changed in July 2016.”
Liberal Democrat health spokesman Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “These figures indicate that a year on from the integration of health and social care there are more people suffering avoidable delayed discharges.
“That means there are more patients ready to leave hospital but who can’t because their needs haven’t been assessed, there isn’t a care home place or the support isn’t there to allow them to return to their own home.”
Labour’s health spokesman Anas Sarwar said the figures showed people were “trapped in hospital when they are fit to go home” due to a lack of social care packages after £1.5 billion SNP cuts to local budgets.
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