Delayed discharges: Warning issued by Hampshire County Council councillor that more money is needed to speed up process

Councillor Tonia Craig made it clear at the health and adults social care committee on Tuesday (January 24).

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‘These late discharges generate an unnecessary expense for the administration. It’s important to send people home on time. That will save a hell of a lot of money.’

A total of 774 patients in the county of Hampshire & Isle of Wight were deemed to ‘no longer meet the criteria to reside’ in hospital on January 22, according to the latest data released by the NHS.

Of those, 175 were discharged by 5pm, 56 were discharged between 5pm and midnight, and 554 remained in the hospital despite no longer meeting the criteria to be kept in.

Cllr Craig indicated that there is a problem when it comes to discharging people from hospitals, specifically elderly patients.

‘I have a lot of complaints from nurses who can’t send their patients home because they don’t have adult care packages. The lack of these care packages makes these patients feel uncomfortable leaving and prefer to stay at the hospital.

The population over 85 years old is a group that represents a challenge for the health system in Hampshire since they suffer from more than one condition that is significantly affected by dementia.

In committee, the budget allocated for the adult social care discharge fund will be £4.4m for 2023/24.

According to the council’s papers ‘the increase in the adult social care discharge fund is lower than had been expected. This means that the overall resources available in 2023/24 are likely to be insufficient to meet the anticipated level of service.’

Delayed discharges are also indirectly responsible for ambulances queuing outside A&E departments as they take up beds that casualty patients could be put into, ambulance patients cannot be moved into the emergency department – and so the ‘flow’ of the hospital is held up.

The government’s ‘hospital discharge and community support guidance’ under the ‘discharge to assess, home first’ approach to hospital discharges ‘provides short-term care and re-enablement in people’s homes to bridge the gap between hospital and home. In turn, this reduces delayed discharges and improves patient flow.

‘This approach reduces exposure to risks such as hospital-acquired infections, falls and loss of physical and cognitive function by reducing time in the hospital, and enables people to regain or achieve maximum independence as soon as possible.

‘It also supports hospital flow, maximising the availability of hospital beds for people requiring this level of inpatient care and elective surgery, such as hip replacements’.

According to the NHS, of the 1,097 beds that Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust has available, a total of 987 were occupied on January 22.

On the same day, Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust had an occupation rate of almost 90 per cent, as 709 of the 784 beds available were occupied.

In September last year the government announced a £500m adult social care discharge fund to support NHS. Early this month, an additional £250m was endorsed to ‘speed up discharges and buy extra beds in care homes and other settings to help discharge more patients to free up hospital beds’.