Hospital Discharge Social Care 2024-01-23
2024-01-23
TAGS
Response quality
Questions & Answers
Q1
Partial Answer
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Context
The question arises due to delays in discharging patients, which affects the availability of hospital beds. The local healthcare trust in Buckinghamshire has nearly one in six beds occupied by fit-for-discharge patients.
What recent progress her Department has made on supporting the timely discharge of patients from hospital into social care. Nearly one in six beds in my local healthcare trust in Buckinghamshire continues to be occupied by patients fit for discharge. A recent King's Fund report found that the Government's current practice of providing one-off funding to reduce delay, while welcome, comes with insufficient advance notice to allow for effective planning.
Discharging people on time is better for them and frees up hospital beds. We are changing how our health system works: joining up health and social care, care transfer hubs; helping people recover at home with more than 10,000 new virtual ward beds; investing in social care. Last month, delayed discharges were down 9% compared to the end of December 2022 despite almost 1,000 extra urgent admissions to hospitals every day in December. One reason we distributed discharge funding back in April last year was to give more advance notice so organisations could put in place what is needed to speed up discharges.
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Assessment & feedback
Specific steps for effective use of funding were not detailed beyond the general distribution of funds in April 2022.
Response accuracy
Q2
Partial Answer
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Context
The local healthcare trust in Buckinghamshire continues to have a high proportion of fit-for-discharge patients occupying beds, despite efforts to improve the situation.
What steps is the Minister's Department taking to ensure the best use of this funding?
Our discharge funding was distributed back in April last year to give more advance notice to organisations so they could put in place what is needed to speed up discharges. In my hon. Lady's own trust, discharges at the end of December were down by a third compared with the previous year.
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Assessment & feedback
The answer did not provide specific measures for effective use of funding beyond distribution timing and results without details.
Response accuracy
Q3
Partial Answer
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Context
Delayed discharges remain a significant issue in hospitals, impacting patient care and hospital operations.
What steps is my hon. Friend taking to ensure that more hospitals roll out technology for better patient flow?
My hon. Friend's work on urgent and emergency care services contributed to our urgent and emergency care recovery plan published almost a year ago, including investment in bed management systems to improve hospital flow. This plan is working as seen by reductions in delayed discharges.
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Assessment & feedback
Specific actions for rolling out electronic bed management systems were not detailed beyond mentioning the contribution of previous work and general improvements.
Response accuracy