SNP bed-blocking failure cost £360m, says Labour
THE bed-blocking scandal has cost more than £360million in the three years since the SNP pledged to tackle it, Labour has claimed.
Thousands of patients have had to stay in hospital despite being well enough to leave, due to delays with their future care plans.
Health Secretary Shona Robison promised to end the practice by the end of 2015 – but Scottish Labour figures claim NHS chiefs have been forced to spend hundreds of millions on delays since then.
In February 2015, Miss Robison said over the year she would ‘eradicate delayed discharge’. But she has failed to solve the problem, with 1,557,781 bed-days lost since then. The average daily cost of delayed discharge is £233.
This means the overall cost of bed-blocking since Miss Robison’s promise is £362,962,973, according to the figures.
Yesterday, Scottish Labour health spokesman Anas Sarwar said: ‘Despite the Health Secretary’s promises, her failure to get a grip of delayed discharge has cost more than £360million.
‘That is a staggering figure that could have been reinvested in our NHS.
‘Much of the delay in discharging patients is due to social care issues and delays in care assessments – the result of years of an SNP Government slashing local authority budgets, with £1.5billion cuts since 2011.
‘Labour’s alternative would end the cuts and deliver a National Guarantee for care workers. This would ensure all care workers are given appropriate training and paid the living wage, including the time and cost for travel. That’s the kind of radical change our health and care services need.’
Delays in discharging elderly patients can be due to difficulty in finding a care home or arranging assistance in their own home.
Earlier this year, it was revealed 1,152 patients had died while waiting to go home between March 2015 and November 2017.
Some patients had waited more than a year in hospital beds to be discharged, despite having no medical reason to stay.
The longest wait was by a patient in Dumfries and Galloway, who was kept in hospital for 508 days.
Miss Robison said: ‘Scottish Government policy is clear. When a patient is assessed as requiring care and support on discharge from hospital, we expect local health and social care partnerships to ensure appropriate support is provided.
‘Figures published last year show the number of bed days lost to delay in 2015-16 was down 3 per cent on the previous year, building on the 9 per cent reduction in 2014-15.
‘We continue to support health and social care partnerships to reduce delays, investing almost half a billion pounds of additional funds into social care and integration this year, while the health revenue budget will also increase by almost £2billion by 2021.’