BED blocking in Scottish hospitals has risen 8% in a year, according to new statistics.
A total of 1,390 patients were subject to delayed discharge, according to figures from the May census.
This is up 8% on the 1,286 delayed in the same month the previous year.
Delayed discharge, also known as bed blocking, happens when a patient is medically fit to leave hospital but arrangements have not been put in place to enable them to go home.
Of those delayed in May 2018, the majority - 1,152 - were delayed for more than three days.
The most common reason for this was health and social care related (74%), followed by patients having complex needs (23%) and patient and family-related reasons (3%).
A total of 43,244 days were spent in hospital due to delayed discharge in May, up 9% from 39,651 in May 2017.
The average number of beds occupied per day due to this has risen each month since January to 1,395 in May.
Former health secretary Shona Robison vowed to eliminate delayed discharges from the health service in 2015.
Scottish Labour health spokesman Anas Sarwar said: "The SNP government's broken promise is costing Scotland millions of pounds each year and putting an intolerable strain on NHS wards.
"Hundreds of patients each month are languishing unnecessarily in hospital beds.
"Much of the delay in discharging patients is due to social care issues and delays in care assessments - the result of the SNP government's £1.5 billion cut to council budgets."
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said: "During 2017/18, a 7% reduction in bed days lost to delay was achieved and we are looking to continue that overall progress this year.
"To support this progress there will be almost £500 million of NHS frontline investment in social care and integration.
"We expect local integrated health and social care partnerships to make long-term, sustainable progress to ensure more people are able to leave hospital as soon as appropriate following their treatment."
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