Wales told to cut bed blocking

8 Nov 07
Delayed discharge from hospital is compromising the health and independence of vulnerable older people and damaging wider health service delivery, according to a hard-hitting report by the Wales Audit Office.

09 November 2007

Delayed discharge from hospital is compromising the health and independence of vulnerable older people and damaging wider health service delivery, according to a hard-hitting report by the Wales Audit Office.

The report found that bed blocking in Cardiff and the Vale, Gwent and Carmarthenshire cost £69m in 2006–07, of which £26m could have been better spent elsewhere.

Auditors discovered that delays – between 55 to 82 days – frequently resulted from the transfer of patients from health to social care services.

The report also criticised systems of measuring delayed transfers, which actually mask the real extent of bed blocking. In some areas, there is an agreed period after a patient is declared fit for discharge before they are even counted. The Audit Office recommended that these local agreements be scrapped.

While the overall trend in Wales has gone down over the last two years, the number of hospital bed-days occupied has increased by 2%. So fewer patients are delayed – but for longer.

Auditor General for Wales Jeremy Colman said: 'Unnecessary delays in hospital are bad for the patients who are delayed and bad for the people who need to go into hospital but cannot.

'The Assembly government and health and social care bodies need to adopt more effective and mature systems thinking, more consistent adoption of good practice and to work together more effectively.'

The findings will inform an independent review of bed blocking in Wales that was commissioned by the Assembly government last year.

As the report was published on November 1, figures released in Parliament showed an increase in delayed discharge nationally.

More than 1 million bed-days were lost in 2006-07, with an increase of almost 30% in acute hospitals.

Gordon Lishman, director of Age Concern, said: 'No-one wants to stay in hospital longer than they have to but it is sadly the case that older patients often have nowhere else to go.'

PFnov2007

Did you enjoy this article?

AddToAny

Top