New discharge figures are ‘spiralling out of control’
76 to 80. The remaining 28 people were aged over 91.
Val de Souza, chief officer of the South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership (SLHSCP), said: “In South Lanarkshire we have been seeing an improving position in relation to delayed discharge. There has been a reduction of almost 20 per cent in ‘bed days’ caused by delayed discharge over the last four years. This is despite increasing A&E attendances and emergency admissions - both of which are up by almost 3% year-on-year in the same time period.
“This improvement is the result of a good deal of hard work, not least by our hard working staff, and the introduction of a range of measures which continue to support more people being able to be cared for in the community without the need for hospital admission as well as supporting earlier discharge.
“Patient safety is NHS Lanarkshire’s priority. A priority shared with both Health and Social Care partnerships.
“SLHSCP, with capital investment from South Lanarkshire Council, is also embarking on an £18m redesign and modernisation programme relating to care homes. This is a very positive move which will add significant capacity to the whole system to support the anticipated and continuing growth in demand.”
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.” Scotland’s leading charity for older people says that delayed discharge figures are“spiralling out of control”.
Age Scotland has called for a review of health and care provision across the country.
Brian Sloan, the charity’s chief executive, said:“it’s tragic that hundreds of Scottish people died while stuck in hospital last year, instead of in their home or community.
“These are people who were well enough to be discharged, but most were delayed because the social care they needed was not available.
“While these deaths were not caused by delays, we know that spending unnecessary time in hospital increases the risk of mobility loss and infection, as well as loneliness and isolation.
“Many of these people had been in hospital for weeks, spending the end of their lives feeling isolated on hospital wards instead of in the comfort of familiar surroundings. The overwhelming majority of people say they would prefer to die at home if possible, or at least in the comfortable setting of a care home.
“Despite the Scottish Government’s repeated promises to tackle delayed discharges, these figures show that the problem is spiralling out of control. We urgently need more investment in our social care system, so that every older person can access the care they are entitled to.”
He added:“if this number of children were stuck on hospital wards then there would quite rightly be a national outrage.
“On top of the significant human impact, delayed discharge has a huge financial cost too. Nhsscotland’s own figures show it costs £248 per day to keep someone in hospital when their discharge has been delayed, which is £122 million per year across Scotland.
“That’s money that could be spent on social care at home.”