Patients stuck in hospital beds across Fife has almost doubled in one year according to the latest NHS figures.
A staggering 120 people were recorded as stuck in delayed discharge across NHS Fife hospitals in January this year, up from 64 in January 2018.
The main reason for the most recent delays were recorded as awaiting completion of a care package, with 36% of all delays in Fife caused by this. Over a third of the delays for January were longer than one month in hospital beds.
I have called on the partners in social care to address the funding shortfall.
What we have to remember is that a delayed discharge is a person in hospital being told they are clinically ready to leave the hospital but continues to occupy a hospital bed beyond the ready for discharge date.
This is caused by a number of factors, such as waiting for assessments, waiting to be allocated a care package or funding to be put in place as well as transport or having adaptions made to support the person live at home.
However, what we see here is more and more people stuck in hospitals because there is no care package ready for them to leave. Community care is such a vital resource, and without proper funding of social care packages we will see more and more people stuck in hospital beds when they could be at home.
This is not the fault of our hardworking NHS staff, or dedicated care workers, but the fault of poorly funded health and social care services. It is simply not fair to leave people in hospital beds because a care package can’t be sorted out for them and it is simply shocking that over a third of patients in January were stuck for over a month in hospital.
The Government, Fife Council and NHS Fife must come together and sort out the funding shortfalls in health and social care provision in Fife. They all acknowledge there is a shortfall but to date have failed to address it”.
