Patients in Dundee who have been passed fit to leave hospital should not experience any delay in being discharged, the Dundee Community Health Partnership says.
Members of the Partnership have been told the local Discharge Improvement Plan is “on the right lines” to achieve the government target of a “no more than 14 days wait” to leave hospital.
A recent meeting of the partnership heard details of the plan which showed Dundee is “moving steadily towards achieving the 14-day target,” however the trajectory shown to the committee stressed that further work is required “to ensure progress is maintained consistently and the target is achieved”.
In October 2011, the Scottish Government set two new targets whereby by April 2015 no one should wait more than 14 days to be discharged from hospital into a more appropriate care setting, once treatment is complete.
According to the Information Services Division (ISD) a delayed discharge is a hospital inpatient “that has been judged clinically ready for discharge by the responsible clinician in consultation with all agencies involved in planning that patient’s discharge, and who continues to occupy the bed beyond the ready for discharge date”.
Alexis Chappell, service manager of Intake and First Contact at Dundee City Council, said: “The Discharge Management Improvement Plan was implemented this year and aims to achieve Scottish Government Targets and ensure that all Dundee patients are involved in, informed and experience a well planned and executed discharge from hospital with no delay by April 2016.”
Ms Chappell said an event has been planned for June 20 where representatives from 3rd sector, patients, carers, the social work department, CHP and the acute sector will discuss the discharge management.
She added that performance reports revealed that Dundee was on a par with Perth and Kinross and Angus.
“We are on the right lines,” she said.
David Lynch, the committee’s general manager, said: “Over the last couple of years there has been an enormous reduction in volume of days lost.
“We have really tackled a lot of themes that cause delays.”