Delayed discharge improving in region

FIGURES released by Public Health Scotland on Tuesday show an improving picture where it comes to delayed discharge in Dumfries and Galloway. The numbers for April 2025 show a drop of 24 per cent when compared to April 2024, this comes on the back of a series of static or worsening figures for previous months. Delayed discharge is when a patient is medically cleared to go home but cannot leave hospital, often because a social care package is not in place or there is a lack of places in care homes or sheltered housing. Across the region, thousands of hours of assessed care are not being provided in homes because of a lack of carers. South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth said: “I am pleased to see long overdue improvements this month in reducing the scandal of delayed discharge in Dumfries and Galloway. "But that needs to be replicated every month. It is shocking that over 2,200 bed days are lost a month because every night we have dozens of people in hospital who don’t need to be there. “I feel very strongly about this issue and have been speaking out about it constantly since becoming an MSP. “The human cost of delayed discharge is enormous, and one which can often be overlooked when you just see figures on a page. “Each of these numbers represents a person who should be able to leave hospital but who remains stuck on an acute ward because they literally have nowhere to go or because they can’t get the help they need in their own homes. It is heartbreaking. “And this is saying nothing of the cost to our NHS. The more people remaining in hospital when they are fit to be discharged, the more pressure is piled onto the NHS and all the fantastic healthcare workers who are trying to help them. “What we need is long term investment, including tackling the woeful low level of sheltered housing, and start paying care workers a fair wage, which would help with the recruitment crisis the sector faces. “We also need to drive up the standards of care, because too often people receive just the very basic support, which isn’t enough.”