CRAIG Hoy, a Conservative MSP for South Scotland, has urged the SNP to outline a plan to eradicate delayed discharge in NHS Lothian.
This comes after new statistics have shown a huge increase in the number of bed days being lost due to patients not being able to leave hospitals across Lothian.
Between November 2020 and November 2021, there was an 80% increase in the number of bed days lost in Edinburgh and the Lothians.
That is despite then SNP Health Secretary Shona Robison promising to end delayed discharge in 2015.
Mr Hoy says current SNP Health Secretary Humza Yousaf has failed to get on top of this situation and hasn’t given social care services in East Lothian the resources they need to allow individuals return to their own communities.
He commented: “The SNP Government have completely failed to honour their promise on delayed discharge.
“That was made almost seven years ago, yet there is a deeply concerning rise in the number of bed days being lost in NHS Lothian due to this practice continuing.
“The costs of delayed discharge for NHS Lothian are threatening to spiral out of control, but we still see no strategy from the SNP to solve it.
“Our hospitals are under strain as a result of being unable to let patients return home and the SNP haven’t provided social care services with the required resources.
“And instead of putting in place robust measures that will allow beds to be freed and patients to return safely to their own communities, local health services in East Lothian such as North Berwick’s Edington Cottage Hospital are being closed at a time where East Lothian’s population is growing and these services are needed now more than ever before.”
