Health Boards get £10m Winter Help

Health boards are to be given an extra £10 million to help tackle bed-blocking and additional pressures during the winter months. The Scottish Government said reducing delayed discharges was a priority after the number of patients waiting longer than the target time to be discharged from hospital rose again. The latest figures show that in October this year, 321 patients were delayed more than four weeks after they were ready to be sent home because their care, support or accommodation arrangements were not yet in place. The figure compares with 274 in July and 156 in October 2013. The Winter Resilience Fund is in addition to £18.2 million already pledged to help ease the pressure on the NHS this winter. Health Secretary Shona Robison said the Scottish Cabinet was monitoring delayed discharge figures on a weekly basis. She said: "Reducing delayed discharge not only helps individual patients, who benefit from getting home as quickly as possible, but also eases pressure across the system - including in A&E. "Although delayed discharge has been reduced by two thirds under this Government, there is still much to do. "Working closely with local authorities, the NHS must reduce the number of people waiting in hospital for appropriate care services to be arranged in the community. "Today's funding will go directly to where it is needed the most and we will be working closely with health boards to make sure they are well equipped to cope over the winter months.''