As many as one in three hospital beds in England are occupied by patients who are fit to be discharged but cannot be released due to chronic shortages in the social care system.
According to The Guardian:
Guardian analysis of official data shows that on average 13,600 beds across NHS England are occupied every day with patients who doctors say are medically fit to go home or to a care home, equivalent to one in seven beds in acute hospitals in October.
However, that rose to more than one in five at 35 of England’s 121 acute hospital trusts, and to almost one in three at two trusts – North Bristol and Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS trust.
Previous work by the Nuffield Trust has revealed the majority of delayed discharges are down to a lack of social care, be that support in patients’ own homes or placements in a care home.
The situation has deteriorated sharply in 35 hospital trusts, including Epsom and St Helier university hospitals in London – where delayed discharges have risen from 6% in April to 20% in October – and Liverpool university hospitals, which jumped from 10% to 23% within the same period.
“There’s certainly a sense of this getting worse,” said Miriam Deakin, the director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers.
The figures come as the NHS is gearing up for what is expected to be one of the toughest winters yet, with flu, Covid and record NHS staff vacancies putting pressure on the system. NHS England announced last month it was setting up system control centres or “war rooms” to cope.
Earlier this month, Sarah McClinton, the president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, said the state of social care in England had never been so bad, with half a million people waiting for help.
“The shocking situation is that we have more people requesting help from councils, more older and disabled with complex needs, yet social care capacity has reduced and we have 50,000 fewer paid carers,” she said.
Rishi Sunak is reportedly considering delaying changes to social care announced by his predecessor, Boris Johnson, that would have put an £86,000 cap on the amount people have to pay for care.
It is thought that delaying the policy would save the government £1bn in the first year, rising to £3bn if it were scrapped altogether.
The impact of delayed discharges on new patients has long been evident, with A&E departments heavily congested and ambulances queueing outside hospitals unable to transfer patients and get back on the road.
But the effect on the patients stuck in hospital can also be profound. “Your muscular ability can deteriorate in a hospital bed – and that’s quite rapid for older people actually – your mental health can suffer, you can lose independence really quickly,” said Deakin.
