PAC hits out at intolerable level of delayed discharges

18 Sep 03
The NHS, councils and the private sector must co-operate more fully in order to reduce the 'intolerable' level of delays in discharging elderly people from hospital, MPs said this week.

19 September 2003

The NHS, councils and the private sector must co-operate more fully in order to reduce the 'intolerable' level of delays in discharging elderly people from hospital, MPs said this week.

The Commons' Public Accounts Committee said that up to 3,500 elderly patients were being kept in hospital needlessly every day because suitable care and accommodation could not be found. This bed-blocking cost the NHS £170m a year, it added.

The MPs said hospitals and social services should plan the patients' discharge earlier and improve efforts to allow patients to return to their own homes.

The government must also recruit more physiotherapists and occupational therapists, who can help get patients out of hospital earlier.

PAC chair Edward Leigh said: 'It is intolerable that on any given day there are 3,500 older people waiting in hospital even though they are fit to be discharged. There is an urgent need for the Department of Health, health authorities, trusts and independent providers to work together better to plan care provision.'

However, Help the Aged said government policy was more likely to cause bust-ups than greater

co-operation between hospitals and councils.

'Introducing fines for local authorities under the Community Care (Delayed Discharge) Act is unlikely to improve the limited progress in partnerships between local authorities and the NHS that the report highlights as being so essential to reduce delayed discharge,' said Jonathan Ellis, the charity's policy manager.

The department said bed-blocking had been halved over the past two years.

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