HEALTH boards have revealed that 683 people died in Scottish hospitals over a 19-month period while waiting to be discharged despite being declared medically fit to leave.
Delayed discharge, also known as bed blocking, occurs when patients are well enough to leave hospital but have to wait for support to be put in place in their own home or for a vacancy at a care home.
Scottish Labour health spokesman Anas Sarwar said the “horrifying figures” showed the problem of delayed discharge could be “seriously dangerous for the patients involved”.
Tackling the issue has been a priority for the Scottish Government but latest health service statistics showed the problem worsening, with a census carried out in October 2016 revealing 1,576 people were delayed, up from 1,524 the previous month.
Over the course of October, patients spent 43,919 days in hospital as a result of delayed discharge.
Labour have warned the total number of patients who had died while waiting to be discharged could be higher than the total of 683, which was obtained using Freedom of Information, as some NHS boards were unable to give complete figures as these may have identified individual patients involved.
Health Secretary Shona Robison said in February 2015 she wanted to “eradicate delayed discharge out of the system” but admitted she is still working on reducing the numbers.
She said: “One unnecessary delay is one too many and I’ve made clear my ambition and expectation that our new integrated health and social care partnerships will successfully address this. We’re working with boards to prepare for winter and recently announced £3 million in November to support them.
“This is in addition to the £30m a year allocated to health and social care partnerships to help them tackle delayed discharges. We will continue to work with the partnerships that face the most significant challenges to ensure the level of delayed discharges reduce and that people can live out their lives in their own homes or similar homely setting.”
However, Sarwar said that nearly two years on the problem is getting worse, putting more pressure on hospitals. He criticised the number of deaths that occurred while patients were waiting to leave hospital, saying: “These are horrifying figures. Almost every health board in Scotland has seen a delayed discharge death.
“This shows delayed discharges are not just detrimental to patient flow and the running of our hospitals, but that they can be seriously dangerous for the patients involved.
“We know how undervalued and over-stretched our NHS staff are, and they should be supported by a proper system to help patients out of hospital as soon as possible.
“Further cuts to local councils which provide social care will only add to this and it shows the complete mismanagement of our NHS under the SNP.”
Meanwhile, Scotland’s accident and emergency (A&E) departments missed a key waiting times target in the week leading up to Christmas, with latest figures showing that in the week ending December 25, 93.5 per cent of the 22,267 patients who attended were seen and either admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.
This is below the Scottish Government target for 95 per cent of cases to be dealt with in that time.
A total of 75 (0.3 per cent) patients spent more than eight hours in A&E while six patients (less than 0.1 per cent) waited for more than 12 hours.Separate figures show the target was also missed for the month of November, with 93.6 per cent of 129,233 patients seen within the target time. Over the month, 730 (0.6 per cent) patients waited for more than eight hours in A&E while 131 (0.1 per cent) were there for more than 12 hours.
The seven health boards that missed the target during the month were NHS Lothian, NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Forth Valley, NHS Fife, NHS Dumfries and Galloway and NHS Ayrshire and Arran.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here