Record numbers of hospital beds are being lost to “bedblocking” just as the NHS is preparing for a potential winter crisis, new official figures show.
A total of 96,564 bed days – when a person stays in a hospital bed overnight – were taken up in October by patients who were medically fit to leave but could not be discharged because social care support was not in place.
That is the highest number ever recorded by the NHS in England, and is a big increase on the 78,487 seen in October 2013. The relentless upward trend in delayed discharges has prompted renewed warnings that the social care system could be about to collapse, putting even greater strain on hospitals that are already struggling to cope.
Bedblocking has worsened sharply under the coalition as the NHS has contended with rising demand for care at the same time as making £20bn of savings. When figures were first recorded in August 2010, just 55,332 bed days were lost.
The statistics capture the number of beds hospitals cannot use for new patients because existing occupants cannot be discharged to go home or to a care home.
“It is truly sad that record numbers of older people are trapped in hospital when they are well enough to be at home,” said Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary.
Burnham accused the coalition of causing the problem through hundreds of thousands of mainly elderly people no longer receiving support at home because local councils have tightened eligibility criteria as a result of Whitehall cuts.
“It is a false economy that is piling pressure on hospitals and is a root cause of the A&E crisis,” he said.
The issue has come into focus amid rising concern among doctors and NHS leaders about potential bed shortages affecting the service’s ability to respond to a surge in demand caused by a cold snap or norovirus. In some hospitals, up to 20% of beds are estimated to be blocked.
In all, 4,936 patients were the subject of delayed discharges in October, 19% more than in October 2013, although marginally fewer than this September.
Healthwatch England, a patient watchdog and complaints body, said there is a “worrying trend across the NHS that is seeing patients being blamed for this [bedblocking] and the resulting pressure on the number of available beds”.
It cited last week’s threat by the Royal Bournemouth Hospital to fine patients and their families for supposedly refusing to agree to be discharged.
Sarah Pinto-Duschinsky, the organisation’s director of NHS operations and delivery, said: “The NHS is pulling out all the stops, with local hospitals, ambulances, GPs, home health services and local councils all working hard to open extra beds and seven-day services using the extra winter funding that has been made available.”
