Patient stuck in hospital for more than seven years

That’s despite being ready to be discharged

A patient deemed fit enough by doctors to be discharged has been stuck in hospital for more than seven years, according to new figures.

A series of freedom of information requests by the Scottish Conservatives revealed many patients are waiting years to leave hospital after being told it is safe to do so.

NHS Fife confirmed one of its patients has been experiencing delayed discharge for 2,576 days – the equivalent of seven years and 21 days in hospital.

The figure is well above the average delayed discharge time for the health board where the wait is more than two years.

There were also patients in NHS Highland and NHS Lothian waiting more than four years, while NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde – Scotland’s biggest health board – has a patient waiting more than 1,334 days.

Official figures showed that in November alone patients whose discharge had been delayed spent an additional 60,696 days in hospital – with this 7% higher than the same month in 2023.

Public Health Scotland data found that in November 2024 there were 2,020 people whose discharge was delayed – with many of them likely to have been waiting for care arrangements to be made.

The Scottish Tories said Sunday’s statistics “exposed the true scale of the delayed discharge crisis on the SNP’s watch”.

Dr Sandesh Gulhane, the party’s health spokesperson, said the figures should be a “source of shame” for successive SNP health secretaries.

It comes just days after the Scottish Government announced it had scrapped long-held plans for a National Care Service.

Dr Gulhane said ministers had “scandalously squandered” almost £30 million on their “reckless” plans before ditching them on Thursday.

Parliament heard that day that the cash spent on planning for a National Care Service could have delivered a million hours of extra care.

The Tory MSP said: “It is scarcely believable that any patient would be stuck in one of Scotland’s hospitals for over seven years.

“Patients up and down the country are suffering shocking waits of several years despite the then SNP health secretary Shona Robison promising to eradicate delayed discharge almost a decade ago.

“These disgraceful figures should be a source of shame for the successive SNP health secretaries who have followed her.”

Dr Gulhane accused the Scottish Government of allowing a “permanent crisis to exist” in the country’s hospitals and frontline social care services.

He added: “SNP ministers have spent the last few years scandalously squandering tens of millions of taxpayers’ money on their reckless plans for a centralised National Care Service, which would have done nothing to help suffering patients right now.

“They have only finally ditched these plans at the last possible minute and bowed to the inevitable.

“That wasted money could and should have been spent on funding local care services which are best placed to meet patients’ needs.

“Now their National Care Service has finally been axed, these figures must be an urgent wake-up call to sort this crisis out and ensure patients can get out of hospital as soon as they are fit to do so.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “While we cannot comment on individual patients, there are some highly complex cases – including mental health patients or hospital-based complex clinical care patients – where unfortunately it is extremely difficult to find an appropriate care package.

“Long-term hospital inpatient cases of this nature remain rare, and the latest published official statistics shows the median length of delay for NHS Fife was 20 days.

“We have seen a reduction in delayed discharge in many councils in recent months and are working closely with all councils to review performance and escalate where we are not seeing necessary improvements in delayed discharge.”

Jim Crombie, deputy chief executive of NHS Lothian, said: “Very often when a patient is delayed in hospital for a long time, it is because they require a significant and complex, bespoke package of care that is difficult for health and social care partnerships to provide in the community.

“The issue of delayed discharge is a complicated challenge for the NHS, Health and Social Care Partnerships and council colleagues.

“We know that home is the best place for a patient to recover as soon as they are well enough and as a result, we continue to work closely with our four health and social care partners in Lothian to tackle delayed discharges, including increasing community health care capacity, home care and care home availability.”

Published: 26/01/2025 by Radio NewsHubClick here to read this story in full at Radio News Hub