Why is it more difficult than ever for older people to leave hospital?
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Discharging older patients from hospital, the National Audit Office (NAO) report published today, focuses primarily on those patients deemed “medically fit for discharge” but who are stranded in hospital.
By David Oliver
The NAO report looks beyond the official data on delayed transfers of care at the underlying issues affecting this group of patients.
Between 2013 and 2015, official delayed transfers of care rose 31 per cent and in 2015 accounted for 1.15 million bed days – 85 per cent of patients occupying these beds were aged over 65. The NAO estimates that the real number of delays is around 2.7 times higher than those officially counted. No wonder delayed discharges topped the list of concerns reported by NHS finance directors in The King’s Fund’s latest Quarterly Monitoring Report.
Waiting for social care was the biggest cause of this sharp rise. Since 2010, waits for home care packages have doubled and waits for beds in nursing homes increased by 63 per cent. This isn’t surp...
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