A CALL has been made to address the rising number of delayed discharges in Fife hospitals.

Recent figures have revealed that in April, there were 3,431 delayed bed discharges compared to 3,315 the previous month, a jump of 116.

Mid Scotland and Fife Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser has expressed concern at the statistics and hit out at the SNP Government for failing to deal with the issue in Fife.

He said delayed discharge was a "key cause" of the crisis in the NHS and social care in Fife and warned the situation would only worsen if Health Minister Humza Yousaf didn’t act.

“Humza Yousaf is still abjectly failing to deal with delayed discharge in Fife," he said. "There will be many patients in Fife who will be absolutely desperate to return home to their own community but cannot do so.

"That is because the SNP have not given social care services the resources to deliver sufficient care packages for people in the Kingdom in their own community.

“This also has a major knock-on effect in our hospitals in Fife, in terms of the growing crisis in A&E and the backlog of operations, as fewer beds are available.”

“The SNP promised to eradicate delayed discharge seven years ago but have miserably failed to do so."

A Scottish Government spokesperson said that, throughout the pandemic, they had continued to work with health and social care partnerships to reduce delays in people leaving hospital, ensure that people were cared for in the right setting and that hospital beds were there for those who needed them.

“Being at home or in a community setting is in the best interests of anyone who no longer has any clinical need to be in hospital," they said.

"Our 'Discharge without Delay' improvement programme outlines key actions to improve discharge planning arrangements, building on the close collaboration between acute hospitals and community-based staff and the Centre for Sustainable Delivery.

“Significant additional funding has been allocated to support social care, including £62 million to enhance care-at-home capacity; and we are working with boards to rapidly scale up Hospital at Home services which aim to reduce acute admissions and support timely discharge.

“We are seeing record numbers of patients delayed under the adults with incapacity legislation. These are patients who, although clinically ready for discharge, cannot be legally discharged without a court-appointed guardian being in place.

"We employed a mental health officer to work with partnerships to identify the barriers within this legal process at local levels and will be turning this in to an action plan to drive improvement.

“Published census data shows that Fife had 63 standard delays at the April census point. This is a reduction from 76 the previous April (17 per cent), and 93 in October (32 per cent).”

Lynne Garvey, Fife Health and Social Care Partnership's head of community services, said ensuring people were discharged from hospital as soon as they were medically fit was a priority for them and was monitored daily.

"The figures reported are Scotland-wide and includes all delays relating to people waiting on legal processes and complex arrangements which are required to ensure safe transfers of care," she said.

"The average number of beds occupied each day by people unable to leave hospital was negatively impacted by the recent COVID wave which resulted in a high number of ward and care home closures; however, we are encouraged that the April 2022 data shows Fife is below the Scotland average for delayed bed days (occupied per 1,000, 75+ population).

"The Partnership is currently taking steps to ensure that people are transferred home or to a homely setting, such as increasing the amount of home carers, working with private providers, and testing different models to optimise person-centred care and ensure timely discharge from hospital."