Scots trapped in hospital ticks up Christmas after Christmas
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has today said that the SNP are presiding over a worsening crisis in care, as he revealed that the number of patients who cannot leave hospital because of a shortage of care packages is increasing Christmas after Christmas.
Scottish Liberal Democrats asked the government to provide figures for the fortnight covering Christmas and New Year for each of the last five years.
The figures show that across the 13 health boards who responded, the number of patients in hospital due to delayed discharge in the period between 22nd December to 4th January inclusive has almost doubled from 1,321 on 2020/21 to 2,146 in 2024/25. This is an increase of 62%.
The health board with the highest number of delayed discharges last Christmas was NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde with 506. Only NHS Orkney has managed to reduce the number of patients trapped in hospital.
Delayed discharges cost the NHS at least £440 million a year
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:
“Can you imagine how utterly frustrating it must be for patients to miss out on a family Christmas even though they are healthy enough to leave hospital?
“The SNP have had years to get to grips with delayed discharge and put in place enough care packages but these figures show that things are getting worse and worse.
“Getting people home is a no brainer. They get to enjoy the festive season with their family, beds are freed up for those who need them and people can be cared for in the community at a quarter of the cost of a bed in a hospital.
“The road has run out on SNP promises. Every Liberal Democrat elected to the Scottish Parliament will be fighting to get people out of hospital and back to their families.
“We have a realistic plan to fix social care, so that we can fix the NHS. We would create a new UK-wide minimum wage for care workers, £2 higher than the national minimum wage, to tackle the chronic staff shortages and make caring a profession of choice."