Partnerships between NHS and Social Care Teams Reduce Unnecessary Hospital Stays
The time needlessly spent in hospital by patients who are medically fit to leave has been cut by almost a third across Lancashire and South Cumbria in the last two years. The number of so-called “additional bed days” – a measurement of how long patients remained in hospital after a decision had been taken to discharge them – fell from 2,665 days at the end of November 2022 to 1,815 by the same point in November 2024.
However, the latter tally is a slight increase on an even larger fall seen during the corresponding month-end in 2023, when the figure – derived from those people who had been admitted to a ward for at least a week – dropped to 1,494 days. Delays occur when the practical support needed by a person to return to living safely in their own home – or a temporary or permanent place in a care facility – is not arranged soon enough. A meeting of Lancashire County Council’s health and adult services scrutiny committee last month heard that the long-term reduction in hold-ups was the result of greater collaboration between the NHS and local authority social care teams. Heather Woodhouse, the integrated place leader for the North Lancashire place-based partnership, said the joint focus of all involved was “trying to do the right thing” for the patient. She added that much of the work being done to cut delays did not even cost the public purse more money. “Often, it’s about staff and teams on the ground working together in a more integrated way. The impact that we’ve been able to have around discharge is because we’ve been able to put staff together, all looking at the same problem at the same time. “When are there, we do have to pull together,” Ms. Woodhouse explained. Paul Lee, the county council’s director of adult care and provider services, acknowledged the pressures the sector was under, including as result of staff shortages because of “recruitment and retention” issue
Healthcare Discharge Delays Lancashire South Cumbria NHS Social Care
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