A new report from GMB, the union for staff in the health and care sector, shows that the number of days lost to bed blocking has increased by 26% in English hospitals between 2015 and 2011.
In 2015 NHS patients in England who were ready to be discharged but were kept in hospital due to delays in providing alternative care were delayed by 1,746,973 days. This was an increase of 364,921 days compared with 1,382,052 days in 2011.
There were a variety of reasons delaying the discharge of patients from hospitals in 2015. These include sorting out a place in a care home (27.7%), delays in arranging further NHS care (19.1%), sorting out care at a patient’s home (19.1%), interagency delays (17.4%), delays due to patient or family choice about future care (12.7%) and other reasons (4.1%). The figures shown are for England for the year 2015.
The changes in the nine regions of the England are as follows: For the South East there has been an increase of 73,734 days to 334,959 in 2015. For the North West there has been an increase of 68,697 days to 207,367. For the South West there has been an increase of 64,025 days to 245,925. For the East of England there has been an increase of 54,017 days to 186,122. For Yorkshire and the Humber there has been an increase of 35,835 days to 147,316. For London there has been an increase of 35,306 days to 167,725. For the East Midlands there has been an increase of 24,748 days to 164,044. For The West Midlands there has been an increase of 21,886 days to 243,834. The North East was the only region not to see an increase to the number of days lost to bed blocking, reporting a decrease of 16,628 to 42,983. The table below shows the full details for the nine regions in England.
Set out in notes to Editor are details for the twenty areas in England with the largest increase in days delayed leaving NHS hospitals between 2011 and 2015.
There are no figures available for the total number of patients delayed. On one day at the end of each month the NHS counts the number of patients in hospital whose discharge is delayed. For the year 2015 for those 12 days the total was 60,501 patients.
The data, published by NHS England was analysed and ranked by GMB. See notes to editors for sources and definitions. The table in Notes to Editors 2 sets out the official data for all 9 regions in the England. The raw data for 151 areas in England plus the other GMB press releases with regional data are set out as PDFs at the foot of the national release at GMB website.
Justin Bowden, GMB National Officer, said "Bed-blocking, which is a millstone around the neck of the NHS, has got considerably worse since the Tories took control of the nation’s finances. Bed-blocking is now a problem made in Downing Street and the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer are wholly responsible for it. The severe cuts in local authorities’ social services provision is the major contributory factor for bed-blocking getting worse. For England as a whole bed-blocking has increased from 1.4 million days in 2011 to over 1.7 million days last year. Councils have had to shunt the problem to the NHS. Councils have not been able to accept the patients from the NHS because they have been starved of funds."