A national health and social care “crisis” must be tackled with further investment, it has been claimed.
Fife’s health and social care spokesman David Graham has called for more funding for vital care packages in the community, stating councils are having to slash services to make ends meet.
Responding to reports Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy is at “bursting point” due to winter pressures, combined with delays in discharging people who are medically fit, the Levenmouth councillor said staff are coping with huge challenges as demand increases.
Kirkcaldy hospital at ‘bursting point’ as winter demands see it operate at 109% capacity
The Scottish Government said it is investing £700 million to support social care and progress is being made but Mr Graham said it is not enough.
“I absolutely agree that the level of delayed discharge continues to be a huge challenge for the health and social care partnership.
“The winter months always see an increase in pressure on the hospital and this year is no different.
“We are living in times where people are living longer but this brings with it increases in demand above anything we have seen before.
“The staff of the health and social care partnership continue to work flat out to have packages put in place to have patients brought home as soon as possible.”
Mr Graham said the issue was more complicated than simply getting people out of hospital, however.
“We need to ensure that the patient remains at the centre of everything we do to ensure they are safe and have a package of care available to support them.”
Adding the Fife Health and Social Care Partnership was “significantly underfunded”, he said: “Year-on-year cuts from the Scottish Government to local authorities is making this situation much worse as local authorities across the country are having to slash services across the sector to make ends meet.
“I call on the Scottish Government to recognise that we have a health and social care crisis on our hands and to support the services by putting investment in that they so desperately need.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said it had been working with NHS Fife and its partners to ensure patients were discharged timeously when it was safe to do so and that the right staff were in place.
“Of course people should not have to spend unnecessary time in hospital once treatment is complete,” she said.
“That is why we are investing more than £700m this year to support social care and integration.
“Progress has been made in reducing delays – bed days lost are down by 1% overall since 2016-17.
“We continue to work with our partners in local government, the NHS and in integration authorities to address where delays have increased and work to improve performance.”
