Almost 30 people from West Dunbartonshire were held up leaving hospital despite being medically fit to be discharged, as of the start of this month.
Various factors have held up their hospital discharge including moving to another local authority, awaiting a court date and family issues as well as waiting on suitable housing to become available.
Care home transfer was also attributed as being an issue in four of the 29 cases.
The figures were presented to members of the West Dunbartonshire health and social care partnership (HSCP) board last week highlighting that delays were up to 398 days.
Senior nurse Fiona Taylor told members that the picture locally was improving, adding: “We are moving positively towards reducing our delayed discharge numbers in West Dunbartonshire. We are working constructively with the courts to try and make sure we are progressing all of our adults with incapacity cases.”
As of mid-February this year, 74 percent of delayed discharges were of two weeks or more with 26 percent waiting for three months or more.
Meanwhile, as at August 31, 58 percent of delays were two weeks or more with 19 per cent waiting for three months or more.
The report outlined that progress had been made but that this had been impacted by Covid cases among staff in care homes, where many patients are discharged to, in August which the report said caused “a delay in their ability to take admissions”.
It went on to say: “While there has been some improvement in performance as a result of the improvement activity to date, we acknowledge that the delayed discharge figures fluctuate and this is reflective of the issues behind each of the delays and the complexities within these.”
Board member Diana McCrone asked about the number of patients who were classed as no longer being fit for discharge, of which there were 67 between January and August.
During this time, there were 184 new delayed discharges and 120 of these individuals had been discharged home or to an appropriate care placement.
Ms McCrone asked: “Was that because they had been kept in hospital overly long or because they had deteriorating conditions and would have ended up back in hospital anyway?”
Fiona responded: “In general, it’s very individual depending on the situation but the delays aren’t because of the length of time they have been in hospital.
“It’s in general the changing face of conditions by the nature of the frailty of the condition that has taken them into hospital in the first place.”
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