When comparing October 2023 with October 2024, the figures in the region have decreased by just over 20 per cent, from 2533 to 2013 but they are still 22 per cent higher than the pre-pandemic – October 2019 – figure of 1644.
Delayed discharge is when a patient is medically cleared to go home but cannot leave hospital, often because a social care package is not in place or there is a lack of places in care homes or sheltered housing.
Across the region thousands of hours of assessed care is not being provided in homes because of a lack of carers.
South Scotland Labour MSP Colin Smyth wants to see delayed discharge eradicated once and for all.
He said: “Any decrease in the number of people being stuck in hospital when they don’t need to be there is welcome, but it still isn’t good enough.
“Week after week I hear from constituents at their wits end because their loved ones cannot leave hospital because there isn’t the support for them to live at home or in a care setting.
“The Scottish Government had vowed to eradicate delayed discharge but instead we are in a situation where we have more and more people remaining in hospital when they are fit to be discharged.
“I am calling on the Scottish Government to honour this pledge and eradicate the misery of delayed discharge once and for all.
“Our social care system is crying out for help – our amazing local NHS is working as hard as they can to get people out of hospital, and local communities are doing what they can to support people at home, but they can’t work miracles.
“We need long term investment, including tackling the woeful low level of sheltered housing locally, and start paying care workers a fair wage, which would help with the recruitment crisis the sector pays. We also need to drive up the standards of care.”
