Hospital Discharging Process Causes Prolonged Wait Times for Care Providers

The government criticized the NHS hospital discharge system as “broken” after a survey showed that nearly one-fifth of care providers in the UK experienced delays of weeks in transferring patients to their care.

The survey, which covered 568 care homes and homecare providers in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, revealed wide regional differences. This prompted leaders in the sector to call for urgent reform of the social care system, emphasizing “enough is enough.”

About 17 percent of respondents reported an average wait of one to two weeks for hospital discharges into their care, with approximately 7 percent reporting waits of three weeks or more.

The main reason for delayed admissions was a lack of agreement on funding for social care, cited by over 200 respondents. Other contributing factors included inadequate information from hospital discharge teams, communication issues, delays in care assessments, and unresolved transport arrangements.

The east of England showed the best performance in timely discharges, with around 96 percent of patients admitted to care providers within a week.

Meanwhile, half of providers in Scotland reported discharge times of over a week, while 15 percent in the West Midlands and 10 percent in Yorkshire and the Humber experienced waits exceeding three weeks for patient admissions.

Autumna, the organization conducting the survey, noted that the Welsh and Northern Irish samples were insufficient to provide reliable regional data.

Recent NHS figures from July indicated that, on average, 22,310 hospital patients in England were ready for discharge daily, with only 45 percent being discharged to various settings and the rest remaining in hospitals.

The percentage of medically fit patients discharged varied across regions, ranging from 60 percent in eastern England to 36 percent in the northwest.

Published figures from Scotland highlighted a record high number of hospital beds occupied by patients who were eligible for discharge in June.

The Labour Party’s manifesto emphasized local partnership working between the NHS and social care on hospital discharge to build a National Care Service.

93 percent of care providers expressed the need for government reform in hospital discharge processes in Autumna’s survey, stressing the importance of identifying available care provision and ensuring clear communication for effective discharges.

‘A System That Is Failing’

Professor Martin Green, CEO of Care England, denounced the system’s failure to prioritize outcomes, calling for remedial action.

Mike Padgham, chairman of the Independent Care Group, echoed the sentiment, advocating for a more streamlined discharge process.

Autumna founder Debbie Harris emphasized the need for urgent reform to address communication issues in the system.

The government pledged to reform adult social care and establish a National Care Service to alleviate pressure on the NHS.

The NHS acknowledged the need for improvements in the discharge process and capacity management.