Hospital ‘bed blocking’ numbers hit highest level since 2017 (England)

[Northerner]

The number of patients stuck in hospitals because they could not be transferred is at its highest quarterly level since 2017, reversing years of progress amid ongoing crises in health and care services.

“Delayed transfers of care” – often known as “bed blocking” – rose in the mid-2010s as austerity hit council-run adult-care services, meaning hospitals were unable to discharge patients into the community.

The number of “delayed days” in the NHS increased from an average of 114,000 a month in 2012 to more than 200,000 in October 2016, before extra funding and higher council taxes brought the numbers back down.

But the latest NHS figures show the problem is returning. December 2019 saw 148,000 delayed days across England, 15% higher than the same month a year earlier. The combined figures for the last quarter of 2019 were the highest in two years.

Hospital ‘bed blocking’ numbers hit highest level since 2017

Critics argue NHS is struggling to discharge patients because of under-investment in community care

www.theguardian.com

 

[Neens]

 

[Ralph-YK]

A little while ago there was a thing about the time spent in A&E. Bed blocking is part of the same system. When on ward on a nights you hear the ward sister on the phone, telling A&E and other wards they've no beds. Cause they're waiting on a discharge, or moving someone to another ward. When i was in hospital once, half the night was spent doing that.

 

[JenyPleeson]

That's true, it is a problem to find beds for hospitalized people. I'm very afraid now to get to the hospital. Our friends were forced to return home and order their own hospital bed for mum and hire a nurse for proper patient monitoring. The same problem we met with medicamentation. We had to wait for some days when the pharmacy will get the necessary medical drug and we lost precious time. It is really very scary. I believed that this pandemic will end in a year, but as I see, it will last for several years more.

 

[mikeydt1]

what slows it up is waiting for medications from the pharmacy also if someone needs care in the community it can take days to arrange. i got stuck in hospital was waiting for my meds got to a certain time then a doctor came and told me that they couldn't send me home as they have a cut off point to get medications and mine wouldn't be available till the next day!

 

[Leadinglights]

Don't forget the pharmacy may also be short staffed and in some hospitals they are having to take the meds to the ward as there are no porters to do that anymore. The IT system in some hospitals is out of the ark so it takes time for the request to get to the pharmacy.

 

[trophywench]

what slows it up is waiting for medications from the pharmacy also if someone needs care in the community it can take days to arrange. i got stuck in hospital was waiting for my meds got to a certain time then a doctor came and told me that they couldn't send me home as they have a cut off point to get medications and mine wouldn't be available till the next day!

Had exactly the same issue with our hospital when Pete was admitted and diagnosed with COPD, eventually after being in a week on oxygen and a nebuliser they discharged him late at night with NO medication whatever.

Previously after his prostatectomy they refused to discharge him as his BP was too low - whereas we were both saying, OK, he'll be here blocking the bed until the day he drops dead then, please yourselves ...... since at that age, his BP had been low all his life to the degree he always sits on the loo to have a leak - cos if he's sitting then jumps up quickly to use the loo - many times he's fallen over - postural hypotension style.

Too many hard things in bathrooms to make passing out in there advisable!

 

[Leadinglights]

It reminds me of the sad story when my daughter was doing one of her hospital rotations, an elderly chap had been admitted because a well meaning neighbour had called an ambulance when he had cut his leg in the garden. But in the time it took for them to do the 'considered to be necessary social assessment' he developed a severe infection (C. diff) from which he sadly died. She felt that it was totally unnecessary for him to be admitted and it just needed dressing and then to be referred to his GP nurse to be checked as there was nothing else wrong.

 

[Drummer]

Our bass player who died of covid I suspect had discharged herself after an operation in Southampton hospital. She went home, but there was no support available, and she collapsed, fell and broke her hip, as she'd not been able to get food delivered or any healthcare.
She was taken to a local hospital and operated on to stabilise her hip, but then caught covid on the recovery ward and went downhill rapidly from there.
If only she'd had some help at home - but her contacts with the outside world were already sick with the virus and by the time anyone who could have helped found out there was a problem it was too late.
The NHS is wasting its efforts doing the high end stuff, the chemo or the operations, if people are let down afterwards.

 

[mikeyB]

Could you amend your thread tile to include the words “in England”. I haven’t noticed any such concerns in the Scottish press. Don’t know about Wales.