Delayed discharge at an all-time high with people spending 720,000 days stuck in hospital

Responding to new statistics showing that the total annual days spent in hospital is at an all-time high and thousands are waiting on care packages, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader and health spokesperson Alex-Cole Hamilton MSP has today said that a succession of SNP health secretaries have failed to prevent patients being trapped in hospital despite being fit to leave.

Public Health Scotland figures out today reveal:

• In the financial year 2024/25, the number of days spent in delayed discharge totalled 720,119 which is the highest annual figure on record.

• The average number of days people spent in delay in 2024/25 is 10 days. In 2019/20, the average number of days was 7.

• The number of people estimated to be waiting on a social care assessment for a package of care to enable them to live independently at home or in the community was 6,616 on 2 June 2025. This is an increase of just under 3% from the estimated number of people waiting this time last year.

• The estimated number of people assessed and waiting for a care at home package was 2,923 on 2 June 2025.

In 2015, the SNP government promised to “eradicate delayed discharges from the system” within a year.

Mr Cole-Hamilton commented:

“It is clear to anyone that there is a systemic crisis within our health and social care system and a succession of SNP health secretaries have completely failed to turn it around.

“Instead this SNP government have wasted time, energy and millions of pounds of taxpayers money on plans for social care which do not deal with the actual problems the system faces.

"The SNP said they would end this scandal but it's now the worst it has ever been. They can't get the basics right, are totally out of ideas and have got to go.

"Fixing the care crisis is at the very heart of the Liberal Democrat offer to the country. We want to see a new UK-wide minimum wage for care workers, £2 higher than the national minimum wage, to tackle the chronic staff shortages in care and make social care a profession of choice.

"Every vote for the Liberal Democrats next year will be a vote to fix social care and save our NHS."