An MSP claims delayed discharges from hospitals came with a bill of more than £10 million for Dumfries and Galloway last year.
More than 35,000 bed days were lost to the problem – when a patient is medically cleared to go home but can’t – across NHS Dumfries and Galloway.
And according to South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth that cost the region’s health board £10,425,633.
He said: “Delayed discharge in Dumfries and Galloway is piling pressure on our hospitals and threatening patients’ recovery.
“Our NHS is at breaking point and every penny matters, and it is a scandal that our local NHS has been forced to foot such a huge bill.
“Social care in our region is crying out for help, but the SNP’s botched national care service plans will do nothing but centralise local
services.
“The Scottish Government must support social care services in Dumfries and Galloway and increase pay for the sector’s dedicated workers, so no-one is left languishing in hospital waiting for a care package.”
Figures from Public Health Scotland show that patients who were medically well enough to leave spent 661,705 days in Scotland’s hospitals last year.
Of the national total 35,692 of those days were recorded in Dumfries and Galloway.
In 2021, PHS revealed the estimated daily cost of delayed discharge was £262 – a figure Mr Smyth now claims stands at £292 based on inflation.
By that basis, the estimated cost across Scotland was £193,284,031, with the Dumfries and Galloway share topping £10 million.
New figures released this week by PHS show 54,077 bed days were lost across the country to delayed discharge in May this year.
Dumfries and Galloway’s share was 2,960, slightly up from the April figure of 2,911.
The average daily number of delayed discharge beds occupied fell from 97 to 95.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “It is critical that people are cared for in the right setting as we continue to face pressures on our health and social care system.
“We will continue to work with both health boards and health and social care partnerships as they introduce these actions and begin to prepare for winter.”
