Around 300 people waiting to leave Cornwall hospitals, council hears

Cornwall councillors have called for more to be done to provide community care to ensure that people can return home after being treated in hospital.

Concerns have been raised that insufficient care and support at home could put vulnerable people at risk.

In recent months there have been regular reports of problems with admitting people into hospital and ambulances queueing up outside Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro due to the number of people who are in hospital waiting to be discharged.

However, a lack of care packages has meant that they have been unable to leave and have had their stays in the ward extended.

This has led to ambulances queueing as they have been unable to pass their patients into the hospital due to a lack of available beds.

Around 300 people waiting to be discharged

Members of Cornwall Council's health and adult social care overview and scrutiny committee said that they had been told that there are around 300 people waiting discharge in Cornwall's hospitals.

They also highlighted a rise in the number of dementia patients who are awaiting discharge, with around 90 of those currently waiting suffering dementia. It has previously been reported that there is a need for more specialist dementia care in Cornwall.

Andy Virr, Cornwall Council's cabinet member for adult social care, said that there was a need to ensure that more people are returning to their own homes after being discharged from hospital rather than going into care homes. He said that it was better for their recovery and would ensure that they maintain their independence.

However, councillors said they were concerned that this would only work if there are sufficient levels of social care provision in the community such as domiciliary care. The committee heard that there are currently more than 130 care vacancies in Cornwall.

Jayne Kirkham (Lab) said: "There is a concern about too many people going into residential care now because we don’t have the domiciliary care at home for them. Is there a concern that people are going home without that care?"

Alison Bulman, strategic director of care and wellbeing, said that there were still more people in Cornwall going into residential care than the council is aiming for. She said that there was a risk that if people do not get the right care in the right place, then they were more likely to be readmitted to hospital later.

She said: "We want them in their own homes, in their own beds where possible. What we need to make sure is that people are getting the right care, in the right place, at the right time".

Calls for people to receive care at home

Cllr Virr said: "The answer to Cornwall’s health and social care issues is not always more beds. The best bed for someone is their own bed and we need to remember that". He added that getting people into their homes would help them "regain their independence" and said: "If we over prescribe, we will drain the system of resources, bust the budget and deny independence for our residents".

Loveday Jenkin (MK), was also concerned: "If the community services are struggling then getting people home is not going to help them if they can’t get the services they need and the care that they need".

She said that there was a need for more money to be provided to help the council to provide the services that people need in Cornwall. Cllr Jenkin was also concerned about additional savings which the department was having to make as a result of budget pressures.

Cllr Virr said that he thought that Cllr Jenkin had "not understood" the responses provided and started to explain again the need to get people into their own homes. This brought an emotional response from the MK councillor who accused the Cabinet member of "patronising" her.

She said: "If you don’t get the community staff right you get people back into bed at home without the support they need and they die at home. This is happening in our county today and you need to address it".

Suggestion of raising pay for care staff

Colin Martin (Lib Dem) highlighted that coroner Guy Davies last month raised the issue of the lack of social care provision in Cornwall was leading to bed blocking and ambulance delays. During a recent inquest he asked for reports from both Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust and the ambulance service before he could conclude the inquest into the death of a holidaymaker who died at the hospital last summer.

The committee asked about the rates of pay for care staff and were told that the going rate is £10.50 an hour. Councillors suggested that if this was raised then it might help with the recruitment and retention of staff.

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