College comments on latest delayed discharge numbers

The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (“the College”) has commented on the latest delayed discharge data published yesterday by Public Health Scotland (PHS). PHS has revealed that there were 1,991 people delayed in June this year, the highest number of people delayed since the data started to be collected in this format in July 2016. This meant that in June there were 59,485 days spent in hospital by people whose discharge was delayed. This is a 15% increase on the number of delayed days in June 2023 (51,905).

Commenting today Professor Andrew Elder, President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, said:

The latest delayed discharge data for June from PHS is deeply concerning.

As we have warned many times before, these very high levels of delayed discharge are impacting on patient flow right across our NHS as doctors struggle to move patients from A&E to in-patient acute wards, due to a lack of capacity. If these figures do not improve, the coming winter months will prove exceptionally challenging for the whole care system.

Delays in discharge do not only affect patient flow through our hospitals, but they are also detrimental to the welfare of patients and their families and this must be a major consideration with regard to the often elderly people who experience delayed discharge.

The College will continue to push for investment and support for the social care sector and its workforce. We need to ensure we have capacity within residential care and for care at home packages that are under such great pressure.

We also want to see reform of Adults with Incapacity legislation and while welcoming the Scottish Government’s recently announced consultation on this, we would call on Ministers to take forward the proposals that arise from it as quickly as possible.