Bed blocking costs region extra £500k

The chairman of NHS Tayside has accused Perth and Kinross Council of failing in its duty of care for people leaving hospital.

Chairman Professor John Connell said so-called ‘bed-blocking’ was responsible for an increase of £500,000 of expenditure in the last two months, and said councils were contributing to this because of what he classed as lack of care available to patients.

At the committee meeting at Holyrood, Prof Connell singled out PKC for currently ‘blocking’ 60 beds. In the first two months of the year, 6959 bed days were lost in Tayside due to delayed discharges – with 52% of these from within Perth and Kinross.

Alex Neil, former health secretary, said: “On the delayed discharges, particularly in the Perth area, there is a lack of care home places and that’s because of a dire shortage of staff.

“The more delayed discharges you have the more difficult it is to meet clinical performance and make savings.”

In response, a Perth and Kinross Council spokesperson said: “Demand for services has continued to increase significantly over the past year, however, at the same time fewer beds have been lost due to delays. “The challenges associated with an ageing and increasingly frail population, often with complex needs, are the responsibility of the whole health and social care system.

“The Perth and Kinross Health and Social Care Partnership, a model for joint working between NHS Tayside and Perth and Kinross Council, has taken pro-active steps in order to address these issues.

“To support the partnership, the council has increased the social care budget for this year by almost £5m.

“The Health and Social Care Partnership has an ambitious programme of transformation aimed at continuing to address these challenges, and to ensure we are best placed to support the needs of the residents of Perth and Kinross.”

There is a lack of care home places and that’s because of a dire shortage of staff . . .