Scottish Labour vows to tackle health and social care "crisis" if elected
The party will lay out plans to give hospitals "breathing space" at the conference in Glasgow
Scottish Labour says it will purchase hundreds of temporary care home places if it wins the Holyrood election next year.
In a bid to free up space in hospitals, the plans are set to be announced at the party's conference in Glasgow this weekend.
The Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said these would create much needed "breathing space" for hospitals that are currently "filled to bursting".
She said: “We now have health and social care partnerships across the country, making cuts to care packages, reducing the number of places in care homes, that’s where the blockage is.
"Filled to bursting"
“The government actually took money away from these health and social care partnerships that would’ve helped to tackle delayed discharge.”
It comes after the figures for December 2024 showed there were 1,890 people in Scotland's hospitals who were medically well enough to be discharged - with many of this group waiting for care arrangements to be made.
Labour, however, believes purchasing temporary care home places, and boosting the number of care at home packages that are available, could free up thousands of hospital beds.
This, is turn, could improve waiting times in hospital accident and emergency units, as more patients would be able to be admitted for treatment.
"They will be comfortable, cared for, and supported to live independently"
Jackie Baillie added: “We would purchase 300 step-down beds to enable reablement and assessment, and capture people in the care homes, and then move them on to an enhanced 1,000 care packages that we’re also announcing.”
Ms Baillie said these measures would be the "first steps towards creating a social care sector for the future, where patients can leave hospital knowing they will be comfortable, cared for, and supported to live independently".
Her comments came after Mr Sarwar said a Scottish Labour government would "tackle the crisis in social care" and would "deliver a proper National Care Service".
She added: “We know that if you keep someone in a hospital bed, that’s about £2500, just shy of that, and actually to transfer them into a community care setting costs a fraction of that cost, you’re looking at maybe 1500, so the reality is you would save doing this measure.”
"Tackle the crisis in social care"
Former SNP first minister Nicola Sturgeon had promised to set up such a body in the wake of the Covid pandemic, but the Scottish Government plans for this stalled following opposition at Holyrood, from Scotland's councils and from trade unions.
Health Secretary Neil Gray said: "We know that too many patients are staying in hospital longer than is medically necessary and we have a clear plan to reduce delayed discharge.
"Our Budget for 2025-26 will provide £200 million to help clear waiting list backlogs, improve capacity and remove blockages that keep some patients in hospital longer than they need to be, and I would hope that would be supported across the Parliament in the Budget vote next week."
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