A bleak report from Audit Scotland finds that the cost of hospital days is over £440 million a year and there is no clarity about how to fix the situation. 

Delayed discharge from hospital can affect people’s physical and mental health, and make it harder to admit others to hospital. It also includes increased risk of infections, reduced mobility and independence and can result in higher social care needs upon discharge.

A new report from Audit Scotland finds that around only 3% of all people discharged from hospital experienced a delay. Last year, people delayed from being discharged spent 720,119 clinically unnecessary days in hospital. While the full costs to the health and social care system are likely to be much higher, the estimated cost of hospital days alone is over £440 million a year. 

“Significant change is critical across our health and social care services, shifting towards preventative care, greater use of technology and ongoing investment in the workforce. Without this, the care and support individuals need to leave hospital won’t always be available,” said Malcolm Bell, member of the accounts commission. 

Cannot function

Last year, 11.7% of hospital beds were unnecessarily occupied. “This means that the system cannot function as intended, and it will be challenging to meet the projected increase in demand if delayed discharges are not reduced,” the report says. 

The causes for delayed discharge are complex, including rising demand for health and social care services, financial pressures, long-standing recruitment and retention problems across Scotland and for some, not having a power of attorney in place.

The tabloids at the weekend led with the story of Brian Donohoe, Labour MP for Central Ayrshire from 2005 until 2015, who had had to wait eight hours in a chair after five days in Ayrshire’s Crosshouse Hospital last month with pneumonia. It prompted an apology from health secretary Neil Gray. 

The report is bleak about how to improve the situation. 

“It is not clear how the shared accountability and joint decision-making needed across all stakeholders will be achieved and how the underlying challenges in the social care sector will be addressed,” the report concludes adding that more needs to be done to understand the true costs of delays, what actions and initiatives are providing better quality of outcomes for individuals, and which approaches represent value for money for public spending.