The number of people stuck in Scottish hospitals because their discharge has been delayed is the highest on record.
In October, 2,030 people couldn’t be discharged – an increase of 79 from September (1,951) – the worst since guidelines were changed in July 2016.
Patients faced a 28 day delay on average and occupied a total of 2,029 beds, which is the highest average number of bed days occupied recorded.
People waiting to be discharged spent 62,914 days in hospital, an 11% increase on the number of delayed days a year earlier in October 2023 (56,762).
It comes as Audit Scotland, the nation’s public finance watchdog, said NHS Scotland needed “urgent” reform.
Since April 2016, following the integration of health and social care partnerships, delays have been reported in three main categories: a person could be waiting for arrangements to be made by the health and social care partnership for safe discharge; family and carer issues, including delays due to legal reasons and disagreements; and complex arrangements due to the person’s specific care needs.
Health secretary Neil Gray said: “Reducing delayed discharges is a priority of this government. Health services everywhere continue to face a number of pressures, including availability of workforce and suitable care placements – and ours is no exception.
“Although we have seen reductions in delayed discharge in many councils over recent months, this has not been replicated fully across Scotland and we are still seeing an unacceptable level of variation.
“We are working closely with COSLA and local councils to review performance and escalate where we are not seeing the necessary improvements in delayed discharge.
“This year we are investing over £1.7bn in social care and integration – an increase of over £800 million compared to last year – and improving health and social care will be at the heart of our budget this week.”
Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary Dr Sandesh Gulhane MSP said: “The SNP should accept it’s dead in the water and divert funding towards reducing these shocking delays.
“Otherwise, more and more patients are going to suffer the devastating consequences of beds not being available to them.”
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