Patients blocking hospital beds may face legal action

HOSPITALS have been told to consider taking legal action against patients who refuse to leave beds when they no longer require treatment.

More than one in seven beds in English hospitals is occupied by a patient who is deemed medically fit to leave, official NHS data show.

NHS England guidance, sent to trusts before Christmas, said if a patient “with mental capacity” is refusing to leave because they do not accept the followon care offered, the trust should follow the local discharge policy which could involve legal action.

The guidance, seen by the Health Service Journal, says “the process may include seeking an order for possession of the hospital bed under Civil Procedure Rules Part 55”.

Patient groups warn the guidance appears to blame the patients, rather than “sparsity” of social care currently available, for the bed-blocking issue.

Hundreds of care homes have closed to new admissions in recent weeks owing to the spread of the omicron variant, limiting social care options for patients fit to leave hospital.

Helen Wildbore, director of the Relatives & Residents Association (R&RA), said the guidance will be “upsetting” for those “in such a vulnerable situation”.

She added: “R&RA and many others have been warning for months that care shortages are putting people’s safety and wellbeing at risk. Now it is at crisis point but older, vulnerable people are not to blame for that.”

Care offered to patients who are fit to leave hospital may not always be suitable, as it’s located miles away from loved ones or doesn’t meet the patients’ needs and wants, Ms Wildbore said.

The guidance comes after 12,986 people had to wait more than 12 hours in A&E departments in England in December from a decision to admit to actually being admitted, NHS data show.

Meanwhile, nearly one in four patients arriving at hospitals in England by ambulance last week waited at least 30 minutes to be handed over to A&E departments. Some 18,307 delays of half an hour or more were recorded across all hospital trusts in the seven days to Jan 9, NHS England data show, 23 per cent of all arrivals by ambulance.

An NHS spokesman said: “These powers already exist and are utilised in a very small number of cases, and only when all other options to support a person’s discharge have been unsuccessful.”