NHS bed blocking action

DELA YED DISCHA RGE patients took up over 77,000 bed days across NHS Tayside, Fife and Forth Valley between A pril and December last year.

The latest figures released by ISD Scotland reveal 77,346 bed days were taken by delayed discharge which occurs when a patient is fit and able to leave hospital but has nowhere to go.

That includes care home or supported living accommodation.

Over that period 30,424 bed days were lost in NHS Fife, 16,120 in NHS Forth Valley and 30,802 in NHS Tayside.

For the last quarter in 2013 NHS Tayside recorded an increase of 1,140 blocked beds and NHS Forth Valley returned an increase of 1,031 from the previous quarter.

Mid-Scotland and Fife MSP Murdo Fraser called on the SNP Government to do something to prevent the situation getting out of control.

He said: “These statistics show that the problem of delayed discharges is only getting worse in NHS Tayside, Fife and Forth Valley. Our health service is facing a number of challenges and the problem of hospital bed shortages is being exacerbated by delayed discharges.

Chairwoman of the Scotland Patients’ A ssociation Margaret Watt agreed.

She said: “The let down seems to be the social services. There needs to be a tie-up between the social services and the hospitals. People don’t want to be in hospital.”

A ll three local health boards said they were working closely with the local authorities to try to improve the situation.

A spokeswoman for NHS Tayside said: “NHS Tayside works very closely with the local authority social care teams in A ngus, Dundee and Perth and Kinross to try to ensure the ongoing health and care needs of patients are met and they receive the support required to return home or to a homely setting.”

NHS Forth Valley said the number of delayed discharges has reduced since December but the health board was continuing to monitor the situation closely.

A spokeswoman said methods to improve the discharge arrangements include looking at the number and range of care home places available across ForthValley, the creation of a discharge hub which brings health and social work staff together to plan and manage discharges and providing greater support to care homes to help prevent avoidable hospital admissions. She added: “Work is also being undertaken to review the referral process for social work assessments to look at ways of making it quicker and easier to arrange home care packages, install aids or make any home adaptions.”

Vicky Irons, general manager of health and social work services in Fife, said: “In 2013 we created the Integrated Discharge Hub at VHK which coordinates assessment and care packages across our services to support older people.

“We support between 80 and 100 people a week through the hub. We are also working closely with the independent sector in Fife to develop new options for intermediate care,” she said.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Tackling delayed discharges is one of the main reasons why the Scottish Government is seeking Parliament’s approval to introduce legislation that will see our health and social care services work better for people.

“We recognise that no one wants to be in hospital longer than they should be and the proposed legislation to integrate NHS and local authority budgets will help to reduce these delays.”