Calls for ‘meaningful plan’ to end bed-blocking

The Scottish Government has been challenged to produce a “meaningful plan” to tackle bedblocking after new figures showed it cost the NHS more than half a million bed days last year.

Scottish Conservatives accused the SNP government of having made “next to no improvement” in tackling the problem, which occurs when patients are medically well enough to leave hospital but are waiting for a care plan to be put in place.

NHS statistics revealed patients whose discharge was delayed accounted for 532,423 occupied bed days across the NHS in Scotland in 2016-17.

The report added that when changes in the definition were accounted for, there had been a 3 per cent reduction in delayed discharge bed days from 2015-16.