Scotland’s new Health Secretary Shona Robison has said she hoped plans to provide affordable housing for key workers in Aberdeen would reduce hospital bed blocking.
She told MSPs at Holyrood yesterday that she was “very keen” that NHS Grampian and Aberdeen City Council worked together to try and resolve a recruitment crisis that was having an impact on delayed discharges.
New figures show the city is lagging badly behind other council areas in Grampian in addressing the problem of bed blocking in hospitals due to care packages provided by the local authority not being in place.
Official figures show the national average is approximately 1,000 bed days per 1,000 population.
Both Aberdeenshire and Moray are below the median level for Scottish council areas, but the rate in Aberdeen is the second-highest in the country, more than 2,100 bed days per 1,000 population.
Ms Robison, responding to a question from Aberdeen Central SNP MSP Kevin Stewart, said tackling delayed discharges was her “top priority”.
“One of the key problems in Aberdeen with delayed discharges is the challenges over recruitment and retention to deliver that care,” she added.
“We know Aberdeen is an area of low unemployment with a strong economy which are significant challenges in trying to attract potential employees to that sector.”
Ms Robison said NHS Grampian and Aberdeen City Council were working together to identify land assets for low cost housing to address recruitment problems.
“That is certainly something I am very keen that both organisations pursue and it is something I have asked to be kept up to date with on a regular basis,” she added.
The authorities are examining the possibility of building affordable homes on land at the Foresterhill hospital complex in Aberdeen and on the site of the former Craiginches Prison.
Labour health spokesman Neil Findlay said local authorities were finding it difficult to fund the integration of health and social care services because of a finance “crisis”.
But Ms Robison claimed local councils were receiving a higher percentage share of funding than they ever got under Labour when it jointly ran the Scottish Executive with the Liberal Democrats.