Slight rise in bed-blocking numbers in Scotland's hospitals

The number of patients being kept in hospital who are well enough to leave has risen slightly, new figures have shown.

Official statistics found 1300 people had to stay in hospital in June due to delayed discharge - or bed-blocking. Picture: Contributed

Official statistics from a census carried out in hospitals in June found 1,300 people had to stay in hospital due to delayed discharge, also known as bed-blocking.

Delayed discharge happens when patients are clinically ready to leave hospital but are waiting for the necessary care and accommodation arrangements to be put in place.

The June figure is up from 1,286 in May, but is lower than the 1,377 in April.

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Figures from ISD Scotland showed that of the patients delayed in June, 1,057 faced waits of more than three days.

The majority of those waiting more than three days, 727, were through health and social care reasons, while 292 had complex needs and 38 faced waits due to patient and family-related reasons.

A total of 39,252 days of hospital stays in June were caused by delayed discharge, equivalent to a daily average of 1,308 beds, up from the average in May of 1,279.