Five years of SNP failure on delayed discharge

14 Jan 2020

The Scottish Conservatives have criticised the latest figures on delayed discharge from hospital as “five years of SNP failure” as the Scottish government still hasn’t fulfilled their 2015 promise to eradicated the issue.

The number of patients experiencing a delayed discharge from the Scottish NHS and the number of bed days has increased compared to a year ago, according to the latest statistics from ISD.

The figures, released today, show that in November 2019, 44,915 days were spent in hospital by people whose discharge was delayed, compared to 43,918 in November 2018.

While the numbers have decreased from October 2019, the latest figures are a 2 percent increase from the year before and are nowhere near the ‘eradication’ promised by the previous Health Secretary in 2015.

Lastly, at the November 2019 census point, there were 1,485 people delayed. This is an increase of 5 percent compared with the number of people delayed (1,413) at the census point in November 2018.

Miles Briggs, Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary said:

“These latest shocking figures on delayed discharge illustrate five years of SNP failure.

“Five years ago the SNP promised to eradicate delayed discharge yet, in November last year 1500 people experienced an unnecessary stay in hospital – that is a scandal.

“Delayed discharge is deeply frustrating for patients and is reducing capacity in our NHS.

“The SNP has been completely unable to tackle the capacity issues in our NHS, condemning thousands of patients to longer waiting times.

“The SNP has been in charge of our NHS for 12 years and the figures just keep getting worse – this is why the vast majority of Scots know that the SNP cannot be trusted to run our NHS.”