Scotland's hospitals missing target of reducing bed-blocking to zero

Published on Tuesday 25 August 2009 22:22

HOSPITALS in Scotland continue to be hit by bed-blocking, figures showed yesterday.

A census in July revealed that 55 patients were still in hospital six weeks after becoming ready for discharge.

The Scottish Labour Party said this was despite a Scottish Government pledge to take the figure down to zero.

Bed-blocking – also known as "delayed discharge" – occurs when patients, usually elderly, are ready to leave hospital but cannot do so for reasons such as having no care home place or services to look after them.

Six weeks are allowed for planning and to make arrangements, but figures yesterday show that in July 55 patients waited longer than this.

The figure compares with none in April and 44 in July last year. In total 634 people had their discharge delayed in July, compared with 468 in April and 601 in July last year. The average delay was 21 days, compared with 22 days in April and 20 last July.

Labour health spokeswoman Cathy Jamieson said: "This is a direct consequence of the SNP's decision to remove 29 million of ring-fenced funding from the health budget."

Bed-blocking increased the risk of patients catching infections during unnecessary stays in hospital, she said, adding: "This failure represents another broken promise for the SNP and the increasing number of blocked beds will put more pressure on hospitals."

Public Health Minister Shona Robison said: "We expect boards to be looking at their figures and take any action they think necessary to ensure improvement."