Star comment: NHS can’t afford these mistakes
It is staggering that in the year 2017 that someone who is perfectly well to go home then remains in hospital for 288 days.
It stops them from receiving the right care in the right place and it prevents others, some who have come into hospital via Accident and Emergency, from getting a bed.
What this demonstrates is a real lack of joined-up thinking.
We have sympathy for bosses at Walsall Manor Hospital. If there are failings in the wider care system then other authorities know that as long as that patient is in hospital they are not their problem.
It isn't right and it isn't fair on anyone.
In the middle of this is a patient who needs care but is being squeezed by the system.
It is clear there are major problems in our NHS and our social care service specifically.
A coherent strategy is needed to prevent cases like the one highlighted today from ever happening in the first place.
The health service is under immense pressure – it cannot afford financially or logistically to be giving beds and treating people who do not need to be there.
We must get this right for everyone's sake.
