Shocking toll of bed blocking: 10,000 extra days in hospital in one month
Ten thousand days were lost to bed blockers in West Midland hospitals in just one month, the Express & Star can today reveal.
Sandwell was the worst area in the Black Country with patients having to spend 970 days in hospital unnecessarily because their discharge or transfer was delayed, new figures show.
In Dudley 955 extra days were spent in hospital, 877 in Wolverhampton, and 283 in Walsall.
Reasons for the hold-ups include waiting for beds to become available in care homes and delays in patients' houses being fitted with equipment such as rails and stairlifts.
Health bosses argue that work is being done to get patients moved through the system more quickly. And they say the figures for December reflect a busy month when resources were under severe pressure.
In Staffordshire, there were 2,498 delayed days. These included 858 at the University Hospitals Of North Midlands NHS Trust – which includes Mid Staffordshire – and 1,028 at South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, which specialises in mental health, lost to bed blocking.
There were some 4,771 delayed days in Birmingham.
The figures also include people having mental health treatment. It comes as 4,000 beds are being blocked across the country each day, with campaigners saying there is a problem with getting elderly people back into the community.
Bosses in Wolverhampton say New Cross Hospital was hit by a norovirus outbreak and an increase in the number of elderly patients being admitted.
Royal Wolverhampton NHS Foundation Trust deputy chief operating officer Tim Powell said: "This was a period of heightened activity at the trust.
"We had an increasing number of elderly patients in hospital requiring complex packages of care and support in the community. It takes additional time to arrange to
meet those needs before they can be discharged.
"In December there was also a significant outbreak of norovirus both in the hospital and in the community.
"We were not able to discharge infected patients, and nursing and residential homes in the community had reduced capacity to receive our patients."
In Dudley, 913 of the days were spent at Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Russells Hall Hospital. In Walsall, 51 of the delayed days were at the Manor Hospital.
