Fresh analysis has revealed the staggering number of bed days being lost in rural Scottish hospitals because of delayed discharges – including more than 7,000 in the Highlands over the course of just a few months.
Official figures show that between April and October last year, 28,395 days of medical provision were wasted on adult patients well enough to leave but unable to do so.
This is often because of lengthy delays in care packages or care home places being made available.
Public Health Scotland data shows that during the period, NHS Highland lost a total of 7,237 days because of so-called bed blocking – the largest number of any health board covering a rural population.
The second highest was Ayrshire and Arran at 5,691, while Grampian lost 5,571 days.
NHS Fife wasted 3,594, the Scottish Borders recorded 2,639 lost bed days, while Dumfries and Galloway lost 2,511.
There were a further 656 in the Western Isles, 322 in Shetland and 174 in Orkney.
Rural communities ‘let down’
Highlands and Islands MSP Jamie Halcro Johnston said it is completely unacceptable that rural communities are “once again” being let down.
The Tory MSP said: “More than 7,000 bed days in my own Highland region have been lost as a result of the SNP’s failures to ensure care is in place to support patients who are fit and healthy enough to return home.
“Successive SNP health secretaries, including the distracted Neil Gray, have failed to tackle the appalling level of delayed discharge, while putting all their eggs in the basket of their doomed National Care Service.
“Neil Gray might be too busy misleading Parliament on his use of ministerial limos but he needs to urgently set out a plan that delivers for rural healthcare in Scotland and invest money into frontline care where it is needed most.”
In 2015, the then SNP health secretary Shona Robison pledged to eradicate delayed discharges by the end of that year.
A decade later, bed blocking is estimated to have cost the health service £1.5 billion. There have also been cases of patients facing extraordinary waits to leave hospital.
Last month, it was revealed one NHS Fife patient has been waiting for 2,576 days – the equivalent of seven years and 21 days – to leave hospital, despite being deemed well enough to do so.
Another patient, being treated by NHS Highland, has been stuck for more than four years. These figures include learning disability and mental health patients.
Disabled people locked up
Last week, we revealed how a young man with learning disabilities has been locked up in a supposedly temporary assessment at Dundee’s Carseview mental health unit for five years despite serious concerns about his care.
Ryan Caswell, 22, is currently classed as a delayed discharge and cannot leave, despite his family and local officials describing the environment as deeply inappropriate.
It was hoped the SNP’s National Care Service would offer a solution by bolstering resources in the social care sector.
However, plans to introduce this by the end of the 2026 parliamentary term were scrapped by the Scottish Government last month.
Health Secretary Neil Gray said: “The first minister recently set out plans to significantly increase NHS capacity, including better access to NHS treatment, expanded primary care services and enhanced use of digital innovations.
“This will help reduce pressure on frontline services and address delayed discharge.
“Reducing delayed discharge is a priority for this government.
“If passed by parliament, our budget for 2025-26 will provide £200 million to help clear waiting list backlogs, improve capacity and remove blockages that keep some patients in hospital longer than necessary.
“Whilst we have seen a reduction in delayed discharge in many councils over the recent months, we are still not seeing this across the whole of Scotland.”
Conversation