Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Cash-strapped health bosses are spending about £170,000 a month because of “bed-blocking” involving older patients in Dundee.
Figures released by the health board through a freedom of information request show that between January last year and September 2017, £3.572 million costs were incurred by NHS Tayside because of delayed discharges of people aged 65 and over in the Dundee City Council area.
In total 16,694 “bed days” were lost through delayed discharges over the 21-month period.
A delayed discharge is when a person is well enough to leave hospital, but proper arrangements for follow-up health or social care at home are not yet in place.
As such, they cannot be discharged — “blocking” another patient from accessing a bed.
https://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/fp/nhs-tayside-spent-170k-month-bed-blocking-older-folk/
I think it's a very unfair headline and terminology - it isn't the patients that are responsible for the beds being unavailable
Figures released by the health board through a freedom of information request show that between January last year and September 2017, £3.572 million costs were incurred by NHS Tayside because of delayed discharges of people aged 65 and over in the Dundee City Council area.
In total 16,694 “bed days” were lost through delayed discharges over the 21-month period.
A delayed discharge is when a person is well enough to leave hospital, but proper arrangements for follow-up health or social care at home are not yet in place.
As such, they cannot be discharged — “blocking” another patient from accessing a bed.
https://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/fp/nhs-tayside-spent-170k-month-bed-blocking-older-folk/
I think it's a very unfair headline and terminology - it isn't the patients that are responsible for the beds being unavailable