Commons committee highlights ‘bed blocking’ problem

Around 3,500 elderly people, considered by medical staff to be well enough to be discharged, are ‘blocking beds’ in NHS acute hospitals.

According to a report from the House of Commons Public Accounts Commitee (PAC), many elderly patients are waiting too long to be discharged and have called for improved arrangements to be put in place for better provision of their care on discharge from hospital.

Committee Chairman Edward Leigh said: “It is important that older people are discharged from NHS acute hospitals as soon as they are fit to leave, both for their own welfare and to avoid tying up hospital beds and resources that are already under pressure.”

He said that while the Department of Health and the NHS had reduced delays since 1997, it was “intolerable that on any given day there are 3,500 older people waiting in hospital even though they are fit to be discharged”.

He said there was an “urgent need for the Department, Health Authorities, Trusts and independent providers to work together better to plan care provision”.

The Committee’s report said that the delays were costing the NHS an estimated £170 million-a-year and accounted for 1.7 million lost bed days annually.

The report found that although the Department and the NHS had reduced levels of delayed discharge significantly since 1997, some acute hospitals are still not implementing best practice for discharging patients.

According to the report’s findings many older people were waiting longer in hospital than is necessary, some for more than a month.

The MPs said that a long-term solution to delayed discharges would only be achieved through private and public sector partners working together.

“Strategic Health Authorities and Primary Care Trusts need to have a clear picture of current provision across health and social care in their local areas, consulting with independent sector providers when planning provision,” stated the report, which also said that there was a “need to tackle the significant regional variations in the availability of intermediate care”.

(SP)