Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
MSPs hit out over bed blocking deaths
250 patients die awaiting discharge
More than 250 people have died awaiting discharge from Lanarkshire’s hospitals since July 2016.
Airdrie MSP Alex Neil has labelled the statistic “tragic” and called for “an urgent inquiry”.
Across Scotland, almost 500 people passed away last year while needlessly stuck on hospital wards – an increase of 20 per cent on 2017-18.
In Lanarkshire, a total of 255 people have died waiting for discharge in the past three years, with 239 of those down to health and social care reasons.
There were two cases linked to patient and family-related reasons, 11 where health chiefs explained why deaths were outwith their control and three where tha causes were unknown.
NHS Lanarkshire appears to be bucking the national trend as delayed discharge deaths decreased from 98 in 2017-18 to 78 in 2018-19.
However, there are still serious concerns from elderly groups and politicians because of worrying bedblocking problems in Lanarkshire hospitals.
On average, 182 hospital beds were occupied every day last year across the local health authority because of delayed discharge.
This equates to an average of one in nine of all NHS Lanarkshire beds being blocked – a performance one third worse than the Scottish average of one blocked bed in 12.
Alex Neil MSP hit out at the health board, while calling for action to be taken, telling the Advertiser: “These figures are tragic and my heart goes out to all the affected families.
“Clearly NHS Lanarkshire’s figures [on bed blocking] are poor compared to the rest of Scotland; we need to find out why this is happening.
“I am, therefore, calling on the health board to commission an urgent inquiry by a suitably qualified and independent professional to get to the bottom of why these figures are so bad.
“The key role of integrating health and social care was to avoid things like this happening.
“At a time when the previous chief executive of the health and social care joint board was awarded a bumper payout of £850,000, the powers-that-be can’t claim a shortage of money as being to blame.
“But we must find out what are the key factors which led to so many deaths amongst these patients.
“We then need to take whatever action is needed to remedy the situation.”
Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge, added: “I am extremely saddened to learn of these deaths; this demonstrates how complex and challenging it can be to ensure patients receive social care for their individual situations.
“We must consider what we can do to ensure that more patients are treated in the community and how the treatment plan made is unique for every person.
“I am pleased that delayed discharge deaths have decreased in Lanarkshire over the past couple of years, compared with the national trend, demonstrating the hard work and commitment of our NHS staff.
“The Scottish Government will continue to invest in social care integration, with overall support for this service exceeding £700 million for this year.
“It is important there are improvements to the recruitment and retention of social care staff, something I am greatly concerned about if the Tories’ vision of Brexit goes ahead.”
Ross McGuffie, chief officer of Health and Social Care North Lanarkshire, said: “Reducing delayed discharges is one of our key priorities and we are continuing to take steps to make improvements in this area.
“For example, to support more assessment and rehabilitation in the community we have recently rolled out integrated locality rehabilitation teams which will help patients return to their home earlier and provide support to them once they are there.
“We are also expanding specialist home support services which help to provide additional support, enabling people to live more independent lives and supporting a continued reduction in home support related bed days.”
The Scottish Government ’ s Information Services Division ( ISD Scotland) published the alarming statistics last month.
NHS Lanarkshire has the fifth-highest rate of occupied beds due to delayed discharge out of all 14 health boards.
There were a total of 66,302 delayed discharge bed days in Lanarkshire last year – and a whopping 71 per cent of those patients were pensioners aged 75 and over.