Scottish Government

This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007

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Allocation of delayed discharge funding

21/06/2002

The allocation of the remaining £15 million to local care services to tackle delays in discharging vulnerable patients from hospital was announced today.

This is the second tranche of investment from the £20 million of additional money being provided by the Executive specifically for local authority and NHS Board partnerships to reduce the number of people delayed in being discharged from hospital.

While £5 million of this money was released immediately to stimulate early action, the Executive required local authority and NHS Board partnerships to submit robust local action plans prior to the release of the remaining funding.

Local plans are now in place to ensure an additional 1,000 people this year across Scotland are transferred from acute hospital beds into more appropriate care. Measures that will be taken include:

• developing more community care services and support
• utilising existing care homes places where appropriate
• increasing the rate of assessments by social work staff
• developing stronger liaison between social work and NHS emergency services for older people to head off avoidable hospital admissions

Deputy Health Minister Frank McAveety warned that he would hold local NHS/local authority partnerships to account for delivering their share of this target figure and promised swift intervention if national monitoring identified any area of the country falling behind on its local plan.

e said:

"We are now satisfied that local authorities and NHS Boards across the country have the right plans in place to take effective action to meet their share of our national target of transferring an additional 1,000 people from hospital into more appropriate care settings. We have been clear from the outset that this money must deliver real and measurable improvements - and that is why we have insisted on such a thorough planning process.

"The £5 million we released earlier this year has been used to kick-start action in each area. Our monitoring so far suggests that this is already beginning to have a real impact in the transfer of people from busy hospital wards into care that is in the right place and at the right level for their needs.

"With the release of the additional £15 million today, we can now step up that initiative in every corner of the country. But I want to make it very clear that we will continue to monitor performance closely. We are taking a rigorous approach to this investment - indeed more rigorous than ever before. Investment must be targeted in the most effective way possible to deliver on the targets we have set. We will not hesitate to intervene where local partnerships are unable to show that their local plans are on track.

"We want local authorities and NHS Boards in each area to work very closely together. As clearly set out in our Delayed Discharge Action Plan, this is a joint problem requiring joint and concerted action. There have been long-standing difficulties in tackling delayed discharge, but I do not believe that historic problems are an excuse for lack of action today.

"I am satisfied that, with the release of this money, local authority and NHS Board partnerships will be able to implement their plans and begin to meet our targets to reduce the number of people waiting to move from hospital into more appropriate care settings.

"People are at the heart of this problem, and the improvements we are demanding will make a real difference to many unfortunate individuals who are currently stuck in hospital wards through no fault of their own.

"The release of today's money therefore marks an important next stage in the implementation of our whole strategy on delayed discharge. One strand of our wider challenge to reduce waiting and delay throughout our health and care system to ensure that patients have "right place, right time" care they need."

The £20 million for delayed discharge is in addition to the Executive's current record investment in community care services, including £250m this year and next to fund free personal and nursing care in Scotland.

The £20 million was first announced by the First Minister in Parliament on 9 January 2002. Following the launch of the Delayed Discharge Report and Action Plan, the Executive wrote to local authority and NHS Board Partnerships on 20 March asking them to submit joint local action plans by 26 April.

Following the submission of the joint local action plans, and the subsequent evaluation by the Executive, Ministers visited a number of areas to discuss details with the relevant local authority and NHS planning partners.

Allocations will be distributed to the partnerships via NHS Boards.