Bed blocking reaches highest level for more than six months

Published on Saturday 31 January 2009 09:59

BED blocking in the Lothians reached its highest level for more than six months in December.

Figures revealed at a meeting of NHS Lothian board members showed there were 123 cases.

The news will come as a blow to hospital managers and the council's Health and Social Care department after a period when numbers were improving.

The rise has been blamed on a lack of spaces in care homes, particularly in East Lothian, and delays in social care assessments.

At the meeting in North Berwick, Jackie Sansbury, NHS Lothian's director of strategic planning and modernisation, was at pains to point out that initial figures for January, although not formally published yet, indicate an improvement from last month.

"These are not the absolute latest figures," she said. "The good news is that January looks quite substantially better. West Lothian continues to do extremely well."

Bed blocking – or delayed discharge – is when a patient receives hospital care and is fit to leave, but has no place to go.

Usually a lack of care home beds is the explanation, and this has been exacerbated in East Lothian after the closure of two homes over the past two years.

Of the 123 delayed discharges, 35 were for more than six weeks.

Edinburgh had 66 of the cases during December, 34 were in East Lothian, 17 in Midlothian and only six in West Lothian.

In 57 instances the lack of a nursing home place was cited as the reason and on 33 occasions the patient was awaiting a social care assessment to be completed.

Other reasons included people waiting for social support in their own homes and those awaiting a social care assessment.

The city council's director of health and social care Peter Gabbitas, who also sits on the NHS Lothian board, said that the 340 extra patients who came through the casualty doors at Little France during December would undoubtedly have impacted on the local authority's resources and the number of social care assessments required and this may have contributed to more bed blocking.

The health board narrowly missed its targets for A&E waiting times for December.

He said: "We are working more closely than ever with the university hospital division and, given January is traditionally the worst month, it seems to be going well. But there is still work to do."

Bed blocking – an expensive problem for the NHS, which many health chiefs privately feel they shouldn't have to pay for – has shot up the agenda since figures approached the 300 mark in late 2006 and early 2007.

Significant improvements have been made and in November there were only 97 cases.

Vice chairman Eddie Egan said preparations should be made for next winter to ensure bed blocking does not become another problem for health chiefs to face.