Stats show nearly 40,000 patients discharged from hospital at unsociable hours
The Scottish Conservatives say hospitals should be striving to discharge patients during the daytime.
Last updated 16th Apr 2023
Nearly 40,000 hospital patients in Scotland have been discharged from hospital at unsociable hours, according to figures from the Scottish Conservatives.
In 2022, over 38,000 patients were released after 10pm, and of that more than 16,000 people were discharged between midnight and 5am, including nearly 5,000 who were let out after 3am.
Tory health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane - a practicing NHS GP - said middle-of-the-night discharges could compromise the safety of elderly and vulnerable patients due to a lack of available care services.
He has urged Health Secretary Michael Matheson to tackle the issue, saying: "We know that the SNP's failure to tackle delayed discharge is an enormous problem in Scotland, but, equally, we don't want elderly or vulnerable patients being sent home in the middle of the night.
"Ideally, hospitals should be striving to discharge patients during the daytime.”
It could also cost Scotland’s NHS a significant amount of money if patients are released while public transport is closed.
At Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, the first bus does not arrive until 5.51am and the last enters the hospital at 10.48pm meaning patients must find their own way home or rely on an NHS-funded taxi.
“If patients are discharged in the middle of the night and there is no public transport available - or a relative to pick them up - the health board will often pick up the tab for a patient's taxi fare home.
"Given NHS resources are so scarce, this is an outlay that could be reduced or eliminated if hospitals were better resourced - and therefore better organised - in terms of timings of the discharge of patients.”
The Scottish Government stressed it requires each health board, local authority and integration authority to take appropriate steps to ensure carers are fully involved in the discharge planning process.
A spokesperson said: “Many of these patients will be adults who are able to choose to self-discharge after treatment, but no elderly or vulnerable patient should be discharged from hospital until they are clinically fit, and it is safe for them to do so.
“This should include consideration of the time of discharge, and discharges at night should not take place, unless the patient and family/carers are in full agreement.”
NHS Lothian and NHS Forth Valley did not respond to requests for information.