The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Bed blocking in Scottish hospitals down by 10%
Bed blocking in Scotland’s hospitals fell by 10% over a year, according to new figures from the February census.
A total of 1,297 people were delayed leaving hospital despite being well enough to be discharged, down 10% compared with the 1,439 people delayed at the census point in February 2017.
The majority of patients – 1,077 – were delayed more than three days.
The most common reason for delays over three days was health and social care issues, followed by complex needs, then patient and familyrelated reasons.
Figures show that during February 38,394 days were spent in hospital by people whose discharge was delayed.
This is a decrease of 5% compared with 40,246 days in February 2017.
However the average number of beds occupied per day in February due to delayed discharge was 1,371 – up from 1,248 the previous month.
Health Secretary Shona Robison said the figures were encouraging.
She said: “These figures cover a period when our hospitals undoubtedly experienced significant additional demands due to the pressures we know winter brought.
“Staff deserve huge thanks for their work.
“Against the progress we continue to see, I expect boards to keep working hard to ensure no patient has to spend unnecessary, extra time in hospital.”