DUMFRIES and Galloway’s delayed discharge issues have been raised in the Scottish Parliament by one South Scotland MSP.
During a question session with health secretary Neil Gray, Colin Smyth asked when the Scottish Government had last discussed plans to reduce delayed discharge with NHS Dumfries and Galloway.
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.
Speaking in the chamber, Mr Smyth said: “A decade ago, the Scottish Government promised to eradicate delayed discharges.
“Since then, 193,000 bed days have been lost to delayed discharge in NHS Dumfries and Galloway, and the latest figures show that that number is rising yet again.
“It is no wonder that the Royal College of Nursing published devastating testimony of nurses who are having to care for patients on trolleys because there are no spare hospital beds.
“When will the Government finally deliver on its promise to eradicate delayed discharge, or is that just another broken Scottish National Party health promise?”
After the session, the local MSP added: “Every month Public Health Scotland releases delayed discharge numbers and while we saw some improvement in the figures in Dumfries and Galloway recently, the last monthly statistics showed another rise.
“Our amazing NHS is stretched to breaking point and they are facing an impossible situation with delayed discharge.
“What we need is 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, because too often people receive just the very basic support, which often isn’t enough.”
