Thousands still stuck in Scottish hospitals

As new Public Health Scotland statistics show thousands still languishing in Scottish hospitals due to delayed discharges remaining stubbornly high, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader and health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has urged the Scottish Government to scrap their “ill-fated ministerial takeover of social care.”

In January 2023, the average number of beds occupied per day in hospital was 1,833. There was also an 8% increase in the number of days spent in hospital by people whose discharge was delayed, from 52,678 in January 2022 to 56,826 days in January 2023.

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

Mr Cole-Hamilton commented:    

“Every new set of figures lays bare the ongoing crisis in social care. Years of ministerial failure have taken their toll; hardworking NHS staff and vulnerable patients are paying the price.

“Humza Yousaf is evidently far more interested in his own bid for leadership of the SNP than he is in the day job.

“The Government’s answer to the social care crisis has been an ill-fated ministerial takeover, which after months of Scottish Liberal Democrat calls they have finally paused. They now need to scrap this billion-pound bureaucracy entirely and instead invest money into services and staff.

“Scottish Liberal Democrats would support staff today by setting national standards and entitlements for users to drive up the quality of care and move quickly to reward staff with better pay, conditions and career progression through powerful national bargaining.”