Study shows the extent of hospital 'bed blocking' across Teesside
The statistics come from the Shared Data Unit
Last updated 8th Nov 2023
A study has revealed how much bed blocking is taking place in hospitals across Teesside.
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.”
County Durham And Darlington NHS Foundation Trust
The Shared Data Unit found County Durham And Darlington NHS Foundation Trust is ranked 3rd in the North East And Yorkshire region for the proportion of undischarged patients.
Hospitals in County Durham And Darlington NHS Foundation Trust were unable to discharge over two thirds of patients.
In the Trust between July 1 2022 and June 30 2023 on an average night 70.5% patients who had been identified as ready to be discharged that day were still occupying a bed at midnight.
This is 12.7 percentage points higher than the average figure for trusts across England (57.8%).
On four days 100% of patients classed as “no longer meeting the criteria” to be in hospital were still occupying beds at midnight. This means that on 1% of days for which data was provided, not a single patient was discharged.
The day when the most patients were left in hospital was Thursday 9th February 2023 when 92 who could have been discharged were still in the hospital at the end of the day.
A spokesperson for County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, said, “We prioritise the safe care and management of our patients and work closely with partners including local authorities and care homes to safely discharge patients.
"We apologise to patients who may have been delayed in being discharged from hospital to home or another setting. Many of the patients we are caring for have complex needs and our priority is ensuring all patients receive appropriate investigations, treatment, diagnosis and care, quickly, in order that they can return home or to their place of residence as soon and safely as possible.”
North Tees And Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust
Hospitals in North Tees And Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust were unable to discharge over 40% of patients.
In the Trust between July 1 2022 and June 30 2023 on an average night 40.4% patients who had been identified as ready to be discharged that day were still occupying a bed at midnight.
This is 17.4 percentage points lower than the average figure for trusts across England (57.8%).
On the worst day 100% of patients classed as “no longer meeting the criteria” to be in hospital were still occupying beds at midnight.
The day when the most patients were left in hospital was Saturday September 24 2022 when 9 who could have been discharged were still in the hospital at the end of the day.
A spokesperson for the Trust said: "The Trust is dedicated to ensuring it does everything it can so patients can leave hospital as soon as they are medically fit to do so.
“A significant amount of work has gone into improving the pathway so that patients can have as smooth a journey as possible through hospital. This includes, over the last year, through the opening of a new control room where professionals from health and social care work closely together and share electronic systems.
“This model is helping staff in the team to identify any issues in the system and to resolve them quickly.
“We are also caring for patients in their own homes through our Hospital at Home team – this is helping keep many patients who are frail or elderly or who have COPD out of hospital when medically appropriate.
“Through our approach we have seen a reduction in the number of our delayed discharges – as we are a positive outlier for our super stranded patients.
“Like health trusts across the country, we do sometimes have challenges with the discharge of patients, many whom have complex health needs which require close working with our partners in local authorities to ensure they have the right level of care when leaving hospital.”
South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Hospitals in South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust unable to discharge over half of patients
In the Trust between July 1 2022 and June 30 2023 on an average night 51.1% patients who had been identified as ready to be discharged that day were still occupying a bed at midnight.
This is 6.7 percentage points lower than the average figure for trusts across England (57.8%).
On the worst day 99.5% of patients classed as “no longer meeting the criteria” to be in hospital were still occupying beds at midnight.
The day when the most patients were left in hospital was Sunday October 23 2022 when 99 who could have been discharged were still in the hospital at the end of the day.
A South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust spokesperson said: “Delayed discharges within the trust’s control are currently at historic lows and colleagues are working hard to ensure progress is embedded.
“At the same time, we are continuing to work closely with local authorities and other partners to ensure that everything possible is done to ensure people who are ready to leave hospital, who require social care or rehabilitation support, are able to access this as quickly as possible.”
Age UK response
Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: "Behind these statistics are real people, the vast majority of them older, who had to endure the misery of being stuck in a hospital bed for far longer than was good for them, potentially undermining their chances of making a good recovery.
"This is so sad for them and their families and a waste of NHS resources, so looking ahead to this winter it is vital that the health and care system works better in discharging older people from hospital once they are medically well enough to leave.
"We know that many lessons have been learned from the bad experiences last winter and that huge efforts are being made to gear up the NHS to perform better in terms of discharges when the pressure intensifies in a couple of months' time.
"New innovations like community-based falls services, hospital at home teams and local care hubs should all help, but the continuing lack of social care, especially at home, remains a serious problem in many places. Unless and until a Government really grips social care and the need to pay care professionals more - not just over the winter but as part of their basic pay - many older people will be at risk of longer hospital stays than are strictly necessary."
Nuffield Trust response
A spokesman said: “The delays in getting medically fit patients out of hospitals and into more appropriate places of care, most commonly while waiting to get additional help at home, have a knock-on effect right across the health and care system.
"It is right that there has been greater effort to help speed up this process since last winter but even if the number of patients waiting to be discharged has fallen from record highs, the number remains dangerously high.
"An NHS and society that functions well require a strong social care system and sadly that is not the case at the moment. These delays are indicative of significant issues in the care sector fuelled by years of underinvestment, staff shortages and an unstable provider market.
“The government has committed £600m of funding to ensure care is in place to help improve discharges this year and a further billion next year, this has the potential to help shore up and provide some short-term clarity.
"The funding through the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund also provides some much-needed stability but we urge the government to stick to its commitment on this funding and not to fall back into the trap of short-term injections of emergency cash at the last moment.
"Ultimately, funding for social care needs to come alongside proper reform which can put in place a stable, thriving and growing social care workforce to meet growing demand over the coming decades.”
Royal College of Nursing (RCN) response
"Director for England, Patricia Marquis, said: “No patient should spend longer in hospital than necessary, but a lack of social or home care is leaving many waiting to be discharged - when they should be getting more appropriate care elsewhere.
“At the heart of this is persistent understaffing across all care settings – but particularly in social care. 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.
“Nursing staff will do everything they can to provide the right care for all their patients but without the investment to grow the whole of the nursing workforce, they will continue to face massive pressures and it is their patients who will pay the price."
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.”