A patient was forced to stay in hospital for five years despite being declared fit enough to leave.
The true picture of Scotland’s delayed discharge crisis was revealed in freedom of information requests from the Lib Dems.
The patient who waited longest, out of the health boards who provided figures, was in Tayside and was in hospital for 1835 days – five years and nine days.
A patient in Forth Valley waited more than three years and two months, one in Dumfries and Galloway was in hospital for more than a year and eight months and two in Fife and Lothian spent more than a year and seven months in hospital beds.
In the year 2020-21 more than 2443 patients had to wait more than three weeks to be discharged from hospital – generally because they were waiting for a care package or a place in a care home.
Scotland’s biggest health board, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, did not provide figures. There were also none available from NHS Western Isles and only partial responses from NHS Highland.
Figures from Public Health Scotland showed one in 14 beds in NHS Scotland were occupied by people who were delayed in their discharge, of whom 66 per cent were due to reasons such as care packages not being available.
Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “Delayed discharges involve eye-watering sums of money for the NHS and, in the majority of cases, it is an entirely avoidable problem. Most people are waiting on a care home place, social care support to enable them to live in their own home or for an assessment to be conducted.”
The Scottish Government said: “The last few months have seen extreme pressures across the whole health and social care system and this has seen more people coming through hospitals who need high levels of care and support to go home. Seven per cent of all occupied beds last year were taken up by delayed discharges at a cost in 2019-20 of £142million.
“We have announced significant additional funding to address this, including £62million to enhance care at home, £48million to increase the hourly rate of pay, £40million to support interim care arrangements and £20million to enhance multi-disciplinary teams. We have also recently launched our ‘discharge without delay’ programme, backed by £5million, to help local health and social care partnerships improve discharge planning arrangements.
“The longest delays are ‘code 9 cases’, where the timely discharge is outwith the control of the relevant authorities. Many of these cases involve people with severe mental health illnesses and behavioural issues who, due to the complexity of their needs, will often require specialised accommodation and substantial packages of care and support.”
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