Bed-blocking is tying up hundreds of hospital beds in Greater Manchester.
Some 4,500 ‘bed days’ – the number of days when a bed is occupied by someone healthy enough to be discharged – were registered by health chiefs in the region in November.
The new figures come as hospitals struggle to cope with winter pressures and an outbreak of swine and seasonal flu.
Bed-blocking happens when appropriate at-home care packages, or places in care homes, are not ready. Poor weather and high numbers of admissions during December are likely to have made the problem worse.
The latest figures show the worst-hit places in Greater Manchester were Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust with 502 days in November, and Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust – which runs hospitals in Rochdale, Oldham, North Manchester and Bury – with 625 days.
Trafford had 442 bed-blocking days and Stockport had 434. Central Manchester hospital had 167 days in November and South Manchester hospitals had 66. Tameside Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust had just 35 and Royal Bolton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 36.
A spokesman for The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said: “Discharge can be delayed for various reasons and is often related to the provision of care packages to enable social care and support for frail and elderly patients at home.
“The main factor affecting discharge delays during November related to the provision of care packages in the community.”
A Salford Royal Hospital spokeswoman said: “Once a patient is medically fit their care should be safely transferred immediately, but at times unfortunately delays do occur within this process.
“The figures published are accurate and are normal for us at a time of year when we have an increase in admissions.”
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A spokesman for The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said: “Discharge can be delayed for various reasons and is often related to the provision of care packages to enable social care and support for frail and elderly patients at home.
If this is the nub of the problem. Then is this decreasing or increasing each year?
Has this been a trend for a few decades including Conservative and Nulabor reign?
No point issuing statistics if the original problem was never address in the first place. I on the other hand look after my elderly parent at home. And therefore cater when needed to go to hospital. What maybe at issue is the reduction of beds for newer hospitals than the older style. As this will be fault of modernisation method of quick recovery for accommodation purpose not health.
Social care is funded via local authorities and is being cut. Expect the burden to shift further to the NHS. This is not joined up thinking. It's an obvious outcome from ann ill thought through "cut."