Patients left waiting up to two years in hospitals

Some patients with learning disabilities are waiting years to leave hospital despite no longer needing treatment, the Mental Welfare Commission has warned.

Staff visited four units for people with learning disabilities across Scotland. They found half of the 54 patients were waiting to be discharged.

The commission praised the care and treatment being received by patients, but called on integrated health and social care boards to take urgent action to end “unacceptable” delayed discharges.

A visit to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s Claythorn House found there were six patients waiting to be discharged, with the longest delay dating to 2016.

A report on the facility said: “While we heard of progress for some patients, there were others for whom there were no plans in place and we were very concerned about what this means for the individual.”

Blythswood House, also NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, had six patients who were deemed fit for discharge, but this had been delayed “in some instances for a number of years, due to a lack of suitable community resources to meet their needs on an ongoing basis”.