Pledge to stop old people being needlessly stuck in hospital

Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon will today set out plans to cut the £50 million annual cost of bed blocking in the NHS.

Bed blocking, also known as delayed discharge, occurs when elderly patients, who are clinically fit, remain in hospital while a place in a care home is found or a personal care package is put in place. The health service loses an estimated 200,000 bed days a year through the practice.

Ms Sturgeon will announce tough new targets to ensure that eventually no patient will be left in hospital for more than a fortnight.

“What most people want more than anything as they grow older is to stay in their own homes – to live in them for as long as possible,” she will say.

“Too many people end up in hospital when they shouldn’t. We have made progress, but we need to go further. There are still far too many patients who are stuck in hospital for up to six weeks when they don’t need to be.”

The current target is for patients to be out of hospital within six weeks. Ms Sturgeon will tell the SNP conference: “We’re going to cut the maximum time that it’s acceptable for any older person to be delayed in hospital.

“The target will initially reduce from six weeks to four weeks by 2013 and I can announce today that by 2015, under this SNP government, no older person will be unnecessarily delayed in hospital for any longer than two weeks.”