Covid shows Edinburgh's bed-blocking problem could be solved with proper funding, claims MSP

A DRAMATIC reduction in bed blocking during the Covid crisis shows the problem of older people stuck in hospital due to a care shortage outside could have been solved before if money had been made available, Lothian Tory MSP Miles Briggs has claimed.

Delayed discharge - when patients who are fit to be released from hospital cannot leave because care packages are not available, meaning beds are not free for new patients - has been a long-running issue in Lothian.

But after extra funding was made available to tackle the problem and help free up beds at the start of the coronavirus crisis, the average daily number of blocked beds in Lothian hospitals fell from 235 in March to just 84 in April and May.

Now the number has started to rise again – it was up to 101 in June.

And Mr Briggs is calling for “proper funding” for NHS Lothian to make sure the problem does not return to its pro-Covid levels.

He said: “The reduction in delayed discharge at the start of the pandemic showed that it is possible to reduce delayed discharge.

“We currently have an opportunity to rethink how delayed discharge in Scotland is managed, but worrying rates of delayed discharge are on the rise again."

He said the Scottish Government had set a target in 2015 of ending bed blocking but that had not been achieved despite repeated promises.

Mr Briggs quizzed senior Scottish Government officials at a virtual session of Holyrood’s health committee earlier this week and pressed them on why resources were not previously made available.

He said: “From what they were saying, they put money in and helped reduced delayed discharge significantly – but they won’t acknowledge there wasn’t enough money previously.

“It has taken this public health crisis to get them to make a positive impact. If we're not going to end up with delayed discharge across Lothian going back up, the government needs to make sure funding continues. But we are already seeing levels going back up.”

And he warned the situation would not be helped by the £15 million of cuts in health and social care in the Capital planned by the Edinburgh Integration Joint Board.

"There is a huge shortfall in how we fund social care, especially Edinburgh,” he said. “We've had the highest levels of delayed discharge and it has become very obvious during Covid that it has not been properly funded by ministers."

Before the pandemic Lothian had 11.5 per cent of hospital beds blocked by delayed discharge – more than one in ten patients ready to go home but unable to be discharged.

Mr Briggs said: “It is clear that to reduce delayed discharge that social care must be properly funded, which is clearly not the case in local authorities, such as Edinburgh, where over £15 million of cuts is being enforced.

“An audit of critical care in Scotland report this week showed that delayed discharge is a major problem for hospitals still and not in the best interests of the patient whose recovery is affected by being stuck in a hospital bed, rather than recovering in the community.”

The Scottish Government has been approached for comment.