The Scottish Government has again come under fire over accident and emergency waiting times – despite official figures showing some improvement.
Delayed discharge is when a patient remains in hospital despite being medically fit to leave and in 2015, then-Health Secretary Shona Robison pledged to end the practice.
However, new analysis by Scottish Labour has revealed that nearly 6 million bed days across Scotland have been lost to delayed discharge since, with a cost of over £1.6 billion.
In NHS Ayrshire and Arran, 232 beds a day on average are occupied by a patient whose discharge has been delayed, costing the health board around £77,173.94 per day.
Carol Mochan MSP. (Image: submitted)
Commenting, South Scotland Scottish Labour MSP Carol Mochan said: “It is absolutely disgraceful that the SNP’s decade of failure on tackling delayed discharge is costing NHS Ayrshire and Arran over £77,173.94 a day.
“That is taxpayers’ money that could be going to our frontline services to help cut waiting lists for treatment, ease the strain on A&E, and support hardworking staff who are increasingly feeling burnt out because of the pressure they are under.
“Over 10 years have now passed since the Government promised to end delayed discharge, yet too many patients in Ayrshire are still left languishing in hospitals for days or weeks on end waiting for a care package.
“It is clear that the SNP has absolutely no idea about how to ease pressure on hospitals and to make meaningful improvements to social care.
“A Scottish Labour government will purchase hundreds of temporary care home places so that patients who are medically fit can leave hospital while waiting for permanent support.
“And we will create an additional 1,000 non-residential care packages as a starting point to tackle unmet need and make care-at-home more widely available.”
Brian Whittle MSP. (Image: submitted)
Conservative deputy public health spokesman Brian Whittle added: “These appalling figures highlight that Scotland’s emergency wards are at breaking point following years of SNP mismanagement.
“Dire workforce planning by a series of nationalist health secretaries means that Scotland’s A&E departments simply can’t cope with the huge demand and, as a result, lives are being needlessly lost because of the intolerable waits so many patients face.”
Health Secretary Neil Gray said with A&E departments coming under “sustained pressure”, wait times performance “remains below the levels we all wish to see”.
Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care Neil Gray makes his way to First Minister’s Questions at the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood. (Image: submitted)
Mr Gray added: “We recognise that A&E departments are facing sustained pressure and performance remains below the levels we all wish to see.
“We want to drive improvements and are working closely with health boards to ensure they have the support in place to cope with peaks in demand.
“We are investing £220 million to reduce waiting times, improve hospital flow, and minimise delayed discharges.
“This investment is supporting the development of front door frailty services in every health board in Scotland and expanding Hospital at Home capacity to at least 2,000 beds by the end of 2026.
“These measures will help us shift the focus of care from acute to community.”
