Question reference: S5W-28400
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 14 April 2020
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Current status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 July 2020
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the COVID-19 outbreak, whether it will provide an update on efforts to reduce delayed discharge, and what the latest figures are for the number of delays.
Answer
Official delayed Discharge statistics, published by Public Health Scotland, show that during March and April over 3,500 delayed patients were discharged to the community, with 60% discharged home and 40% discharged to a care home.
Public Health Scotland define a delayed discharge as a hospital inpatient who is clinically ready for discharge from inpatient hospital care and who continues to occupy a hospital bed beyond the ready for discharge date. A number of these delays have extremely complex needs that require specialist care within the community, or are waiting for a Guardian to be appointed through the courts before the patient can be legally moved. At the April census these delays accounted for 34% of the total delays.
Delayed discharge management information is also now being published regularly on the Scottish Government website at https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-daily-data-for-scotland/ .