Lack of care placements leaves hundreds of patients stuck in hospital
Hundreds of patients are staying in hospital for longer than they need to in the region because care packages can't be found for them, piling pressure onto the NHS.
New figures on delayed transfers of care - commonly known as bed blocking - showed people were being kept on the wards even though they were well enough to leave hospital.
It means hospitals cannot free up their beds for new patients who need them and comes as A&E waiting times are at their worst-ever levels.
Not being able to free beds up quickly enough has been identified as a key factor in the current NHS crisis by health experts. Four-hour A&E waiting time performance plummeted to 70 per cent at Sandwell's NHS Trust in October due largely to a lack of available beds, with nearly all of them taken. It had been at 81 per cent the previous month.
At the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, which runs New Cross Hospital, 27 people were kept in a day on average during September when they didn't need to be there. Often the reason was because placements in care homes or home care packages could not be arranged quickly enough.
There were 22 at the Dudley Group NHS Trust, which runs Russells Hall, 18 at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, which runs Sandwell and City hospitals, and 17 at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs Walsall Manor.
Data from NHS England revealed the main reasons patients were not being moved out of hospitals. In the majority of cases in the Black Country it was because patients were waiting for placements to become available in a residential or nursing home, or for a care package in their own home.
Out of 2,534 bed days lost at Black Country hospitals during September, 504 were because there were no care or residential home placements available and a further 479 because home care packages hadn't been arranged. The patient, or their family, choosing to stay put was also an issue, amounting for 625 days. It is down to local authorities to arrange social care placements.
Toby Lewis, chief executive of the Sandwell trust, told the Express & Star this week freeing up beds and providing more care for the elderly in their homes was crucial to easing the strain on the NHS. He also warned the burden on hospitals was only likely to increase in the coming years because of an ageing population.
He said: "I think we have all got to do better around the services we offer, particularly to adults who are 80, 85, 90 years old. If you look at the biggest rise in attendances at A&E departments across the country who then need of admission to hospital or some form of ongoing care, it's in that cohort.
"By 2030 there will be three times as many people over the age of 85 living in Sandwell than there were five years ago. We need to make sure that working with care homes, working with the local authority, working particularly with the voluntary sector we've got the best possible service offer."
A Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust spokesman said: "We have introduced a whole host of different ways to reduce our delayed transfers of care. Working in partnership with the City of Wolverhampton Council and Wolverhampton Clinical Commissioning Group we have reduced delayed transfers of care by over 70 per cent in Wolverhampton in the last two years."
David Watts, the Wolverhampton Council's director of adult services, said: “A few years ago Wolverhampton had significant challenges, but we have worked tirelessly with our partners to focus on improving delayed transfers of care. These figures show that this hard work is paying off; Wolverhampton is now in the top quartile nationally – and has been since January."
Matt Bowsher, director of adult social care at Dudley Council, said: "In the last three years we have been working with the hospital to introduce a number of measures to better manage the high level of demand for care. This has seen the number of cases of delayed transfer of care reduce considerably and this has been recognised nationally."
A Sandwell Council spokeswoman said: “Sandwell is currently number one in the country for having the lowest number of delayed transfers of care.
"We’ve achieved this through our short-term assessment and reablement service supporting people who can return to their own home, and having enhanced assessment beds in residential and nursing homes for people who would benefit from this option.
A Walsall Council spokesman said: "Health and social care partners work closely in Walsall to support the timely and appropriate discharge of patients from hospital. In response to any anticipated winter pressures, we have identified additional capacity in our domiciliary, residential and nursing care sectors to support the often complex health and social care needs of patients awaiting discharge."
