Pressure on Jeane Freeman as monthly statistics for bed blocking rise

Scottish Health Secretary Jeane Freeman, is under increasing pressure after new figures showed the number of people forced to stay in hospital despite being well enough to go home has risen again.

Freeman said tackling delayed discharge would be her number one priority as Heath Secretary. Picture: John Devlin.

Freeman said tackling delayed discharge would be her number one priority as Heath Secretary when she was appointed in the role a year ago – four years after the government pledged to “eradicate” the problem with a 
£100 million investment.

However new NHS statistics published yesterday showed 1,451 people affected by delayed discharge in May this year, a rise of four per cent compared with the same time last year when 1181 patients were trapped in hospital and also up from April this year, when it stood at 1366.

As a result, Scotland’s NHS lost 45,061 bed days in May and accrued a financial cost of £234 per day for each delay – a total of £10.5m.

Of those waiting to go home from hospital, 1,181 were delayed for three days or more, with a lack of health and social care support accounting for 884 delays, complex needs for 24 and family reasons for just 33 delays. The delayed discharge figures fluctuate from month to month, but they peaked in October last year at 1,542.

Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary Miles Briggs MSP said the statistics showed the Scottish Government was failing to “get to grips with this problem”.

He added: “Delayed discharge is a serious issue which is bad for patients and ends up costing our NHS millions of pounds a year. We need to start tackling this, but instead we have seen no direction from the SNP on how to improve social care and allow these people to leave hospital.

“Jeane Freeman said that addressing delayed discharge was her number one priority. A year into the job and the situation is getting worse on her watch.”

Scottish Labour’s health spokesperson, Monica Lennon, said each delayed discharge was a “drain on NHS resources” and put people at risk of hospital-acquired infections. She added: “The performance of our NHS is worsening under Jeane Freeman.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said it was investing £700m to support social care and the integration of services, and added: “People shouldn’t need to spend unnecessary time in hospital once treatment is complete. We are continuing to work closely with health and social care partnerships to ensure the good practice which exists is spread across Scotland.”