AN EXTRA 200 beds for frail elderly patients are being opened in Scotland.
The Scottish Government has announced a 40% increase in the number of "intermediate care beds" which provide a stop-gap between hospital and home.
The move comes amid sustained concern about the pressure on mainstream hospitals as admissions rise and more patients find themselves stuck on wards waiting for community care services which will allow them to go home.
The Herald's NHS: Time for Action campaign has been calling for a review of capacity in both the NHS and social care for 18 months.
Shona Robison, the new Scottish Health Secretary, said health boards and councils would create an extra 200 intermediate care beds by next March.
The beds will provide a half way house between hospital and home for patients who are preparing to return to the community after a spell on the wards.
More than 100 of the beds will be in Glasgow, with 30 planned for Fife and smaller numbers in other parts of the country.
Ms Robison said: "Intermediate care beds, provided in community settings, should play a bigger role in our health and safety care, especially in the care of older people or those returning home from hospital.
"By bringing together health and social care, Scotland is already leading the way across the UK in terms of delivering more joined up, coordinated care that older people need.
"We know that more older people are ending up in hospital unnecessarily or staying in hospital too long because they are not getting the support they need to remain or return home."
Ms Robison said the Scottish Government is also creating a bed planning tool kit which health boards can use to ensure they have the right type and number of beds at the right time to meet patients' needs.
The extra beds were announced yesterday(tue) as new figures showed health boards have successfully reduced the use of emergency beds by patients over the age of 75 by 12.9% since 2009-10 - beating the Scottish Government's target.
Despite this reduction, frontline hospital admissions continue to increase including a 3% rise to 1,524,917 admissions last year.
Jenny Marra, who was appointed health spokeswoman for Scottish Labour yesterday(tue), said: "It's good that the Scottish Government now recognise that we have a problem with the number of beds for discharging patients in the NHS and the additional 200 beds are welcome.
"But this is the tip of the iceberg. Everyone with relatives in hospital knows that getting our loved ones from hospital into care is one of the biggest problems facing the Scottish Government this winter."
Theresa Fyffe, director of the Royal College of Nursing Scotland, welcomed the beds but said other areas such as district nursing also needed investment. She said: "It's very important that - in line with the Scottish Government's ambition for the NHS - people are treated at home or in a homely setting, so this type of initiative must be taken forward in a coherent way to ensure that there genuinely is a shift of care from hospitals to the community. So far, as Audit Scotland pointed out in various reviews of the NHS, this has failed to happen."
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