By Claire Warrender

FIFE’S HEALTH and social work chiefs have insisted that reducing the time taken to discharge people from hospital is a “major priority” for them, despite claims the region is facing a massive problem.

NHS Fife and Fife Council joined forces at the weekend to defend their record after figures indicated more people were being kept in hospital after they were ready to leave than elsewhere in Scotland.

The statistics revealed that in October, 11.8% of all occupied beds in Fife’s hospitals were taken up by what are known as delayed discharge patients—people who are medically ready to leave but are prevented from doing so for a variety of reasons such as community care arrangements not being in place.

At the same time across Scotland, an average 4.7% of hospital beds were occupied by patients ready to leave.

Mid Scotland and Fife Labour MSP Claire Baker has expressed concern at the figures released by the Scottish Government’s health statistics unit ISD Scotland and blamed much of the Fife situation on funding problems within Fife Council’s social work budget which she said had led to serious delays in care assessments—a claim denied by the local authority.

She said the high figure came in spite of one-off funding to the council from NHS Fife to help alleviate the situation.

“The figures show that the scale of the problem of delayed discharges in Fife is huge,” said Mrs Baker. “It is not acceptable that one out of every nine hospital beds occupied in Fife is being taken up by patients that should be at home or receiving care elsewhere.

“This is a huge drain on the resources of the NHS and causes distress and discomfort to patients and their families.

“This is not a problem caused by the NHS. It is a direct consequence of Fife Council’s decisions since the election.”

She added, “The SNP and Lib Dem Fife Council has cut many services to the most vulnerable people in Fife and also hugely increased the costs of many other essential care services.

“While I was happy NHS Fife provided funding to try to help Fife Council out of its social work crisis, I think we see the money is dwarfed by the scale of the problems facing Fife.”

Tim Brett, who chairs Fife’s social work and health committee, said the latest figures showed that last month, 63 people awaited discharge from hospital for more than six weeks, against 87 in October.

“This is a major priority for Fife Council and NHS Fife and we have put an action plan in place to reduce the time taken for people to be discharged from hospital,” he said. “This includes use of NHS Fife funds to move 40 individuals, over and above the current council capacity, into residential care.”

He said delays in discharging people from hospital were due to three main factors—a growing number of elderly people in Fife, an increase in emergency admissions in 2007 against 2006 and more elderly people with complex care needs.

He stressed there was no link between the delayed discharge figures and the well publicised concerns about proposed increased charges for home care for some service users in Fife.

“Our social work budget has not been reduced, there will not be cuts in services as is being claimed. We have and will continue to place people in residential and nursing homes on the same basis as before.”

NHS Fife chief executive George Brechin said, “NHS Fife and Fife Council share a commitment to resolve this issue. While we do not recognise the precise figures quoted by Mrs Baker, we work very hard to ensure our acute services are as little affected as possible by patients awaiting discharge.”

At a meeting between the council and MSPs, MPs and MEPs on Friday, social work executive director Stephen Moore answered questions. Council leader Peter Grant, who chaired the meeting, said all parliamentary representatives had been asked some time ago if there was anything they wanted to discuss.

“Mrs Baker did not raise this issue with us. Indeed she did not put forward anything at all for discussion, didn’t even attend and was not represented at the meeting, despite earlier saying she would,” he said.