WIREDGOV

More people now discharged within three days.

Health Secretary Shona Robison today praised staff working in the NHS and local authorities for their efforts to reduce the number of patients delayed in hospital, waiting to be discharged.

Figures published today by ISD Scotland show that 47,476 bed days were lost to delayed discharge patients in April 2015 – a reduction of over 2,500 days compared with March 2015 and below the level in April 2014.

In addition more people are now being discharged from hospital within three days as local authority and NHS partnerships focus on discharging patients within 72 hours of being clinically assessed as ready to leave hospital.

Figures from the May 2015 census show there were 633 delays over three days compared with 947 delays over three days at October 2014 - when additional resources were allocated to local partnerships ahead of winter.

However, the Health Secretary said that more needed to be done to reduce delays even further and called on local authority and NHS partnerships to renew their efforts to tackle delayed discharge.

Ms Robison said: “Tackling delayed discharge is one of this Government’s key priorities. Ensuring people are able to get home or to a care setting as soon as they are judged clinically fit for discharge, not only has proven benefits for the patient but helps to free up beds and improve the flow of patients through the hospital.

“Our focus has been on reducing overall delays to ease pressure on the acute system and we invested £18 million over the winter to support this. In addition local authorities and the NHS have made a commitment to work towards discharging more patients within 72 hours of being ready to leave hospital.

“It is welcome, therefore, that the figures published today show less people are waiting over three days to be discharged. Partnerships have made considerable progress this year, with over two thirds of local authorities now having either no delays over two weeks or with numbers in single figures. The total number of delays is half what it was 10 years ago.

“We should recognise this progress and I want to thank staff working in the NHS and local authorities for their considerable effort towards addressing this important issue.

“However clearly there are still too many people delayed in hospital as they wait for a care package in the community or a care assessment to allow them to leave hospital. This is why I’m calling on partnerships to renew their focus on tackling delayed discharge.

“The Scottish Government has already committed £100 million over three years to support local efforts by partnerships and help to discharge patients more quickly. In addition, and as an indication of our commitment to this issue, we are beginning to publish delayed discharge statistics monthly – bringing greater transparency to this important issue.”

Notes To Editors

The statistical publication, ‘Delayed Discharges in NHS Scotland’, is available on the ISD Scotland website:http://www.isdscotland.org

The figures are also available on the NHS Performs website: nhsperforms.scot

NHS Performs

Information Services Division and Health Protection Scotland have collaborated with the Scottish Government to develop the new standalone website, NHS Performs, nhsperforms.scot

Launched today (30 June) the new website will provide readily accessible performance statistics at hospital and health board level.

Topics include weekly A&E waiting time figures, monthly delayed discharge figures, and monthly cancelled operations statistics.

NHS Performs includes data that has been previously published (or published simultaneously). The information included in NHS Performs is a small selection of data published by ISD.

Currently users are able to select one of the 30 hospitals in Scotland that have a core A&E, and then view a suite of indicators and trend charts. Additional hospitals are being considered for inclusion in future updates.

Over the summer, user and public engagement will be carried out to specifically inform the development of further content and any revisions to the structure and presentation of the site.