Study shows extent of hospital 'bed blocking' across North Cumbria
The statistics come from the Shared Data Unit
A study has revealed how much bed blocking is taking place in hospitals across North Cumbria.
The Shared Data Unit says more than 13,000 people are unable to leave hospitals in England each day - despite being classed as fit to leave.
It said: "We found that, at some trusts, only one in every ten adult patients eligible to leave can actually do so at the end of each day, with the North West home to the largest proportion of delays.
"Almost half of those were because patients were waiting for care packages to begin in a facility or at home, but many were also waiting for community hospital beds.
"While levels of delays have remained stable over the course of the last year nationally, the winter peak seen in 2022 was almost double what it was a decade ago.
"The government has released £600m in 2023-24, which aims to help councils recruit and retain more care workers, but health leaders say the plans fall short of the reform required."
Patricia Marquis, Royal College of Nursing director, said: "At the heart of this is persistent understaffing across all care settings. We would like to see a long-term plan for social care that matches the ambitions of the recent NHS Long-term Workforce Plan. Put simply, we need more nursing staff in the community and social care sector.”
North Cumbria Integrated Care Trust
In the North Cumbria Integrated Care Trust, between July 1 2022 and June 30 2023 on an average night, over three quarters of patients who had been identified as ready to be discharged that day were still occupying a bed at midnight.
On the worst day 100% of patients classed as “no longer meeting the criteria” to be in hospital were still occupying beds at midnight.
A spokesperson for North Cumbria Integrated Care Trust, said:
"Delayed discharges have been in issue in north Cumbria for some time. There are a number of reasons for this including challenges within the care market, recruitment, our rurality and a higher proportion of older people who need support.
"North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust have been working with our system partners to address the challenges and together we have developed a number of initiatives and schemes that have made significant improvements.
"Our Transfer of Care Hub has staff from hospital, community, social care and the third sector who are all working together to make sure patients have the care they need when they are ready to leave hospital. Our discharge to assess process means patients are not delayed in hospital waiting for assessments as these take place in their home with the relevant support arranged there. Both of these schemes have been nationally recognised as best practice.
"Working together we have also increased home care capacity and intermediate care beds which provide enhanced care for those who need support before they can go home but who don’t need to be in hospital. We are continuing to work together to make sure that patients are getting the right care in the right place at the right time."
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) response
A spokesman said:
“It is vital people receive the right care in the right place, and we are working to ensure patients are discharged safely from hospital, as soon as they are medically fit to do so. A record £1.6 billion investment is supporting this, on top of the £700 million to ease hospital pressures over last winter and the £42.6 million fund to support innovation in adult social care.
“To further bolster the workforce, we are continuing our Made With Care recruitment campaign – designed to reach millions of people – and the average pay for care workers has also increased. Staff retention is equally as important, which is why we are also investing almost £2 billion over two years to help councils support the workforce.”