THE number of patients stuck in Scotland’s hospitals depite being well enough to leave has reached its highest record since the Covid lockdown began.

New official figures showed the number of bed days lost to delayed discharges in May was 35,348, up 8 per cent in a month, with an average 1,140 beds occupied per day, up 5% on April.

The last time the bed-blocking numbers were higher was in March 2020, the month that lockdown began, when they were 45,009 and 1,452 respectively.

The May 2021 figure for bed days lost is two-thirds higher than the same month in 2020, when 21,225 bed days were taken up by delayed discharges.

The start of the pandemic saw a mass clear-out of delayed discharge patients to make room for expected Covid cases, with hundreds sent untested to care homes.

At the May 2021 census point, the last Thursday of the month, there were 1,145 people delayed, an increase of 6% compared to April’s census point. 

Of those delayed at the May census point, 921 had been stuck in hospital for more than three days despite being medically cleared to leave, with health and social care reasons accounting for 531 (58%) of these hold-ups.

Complex needs accounted for 354 delays (38%) and patient and family-related reasons 36 delays (4%).

The figures, issued by Public Health Scotland, come after the body’s annual report showed the number of delayed discharge patients plummeted at the start of the pandemic, dropping from 1,452 to 676 between March 2020 and April 2020.

But since April 2020, delayed discharges increased in all but four months, reaching the previous peak of 1,135 per day in January 2021.

NHS Scotland figures for the year ending March 31 also reveal 63% of the occupied beds in delayed discharge cases were for people over 75, with the remaining 130,902 bed days (37%) occupied by people aged 18-74.

Almost a third (65%) of delays were due to the health and social care system, with care arrangement delays responsible for 28% of cases, a lack of availability in other settings such as care homes blamed for 22%, and patients awaiting community care assessments causing 15% of delays.

There were 30% described as “complex” delay reasons, such as awaiting a place in a specialist facility, where an interim move is not appropriate or if the person legally lacks the capacity to be moved.

In 2015, the SNP Government said it planned to “eradicate” delayed discharge in a year.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats said the Goverment must address its legacy of failure on the problem.

Leader Willie Rennie said: “Successive SNP governments have categorically failed to get systems in place so that patients can move from hospital back into the community quickly and safely. 

“These figures show the legacy of their distraction and mismanagement continues.

“It can drag down your health to be in hospital when you should be cared for in the community. The NHS is under pressure like never before. Time is precious.

“The more staff tied up because care packages are not in place, the harder it is to deal with the day to day demands.

“A new and improved care system can’t get lost in the weeds of new centralised boards and bureaucracies, which is the risk of a National Care Service.

"The government should instead get on and establish new national care standards that patients can depend on, backed by a step change in pay, conditions and careers for the social care staff."