Patient in hospital for 16 months has cost 100 patients
- An elderly woman has been in a Dudley hospital for nearly 500 days
- Believed to be the worst case of bed blocking in NHS hospitals in the UK
- The hold up is due to a problem finding the unnamed patient a social care place
- Russells Hall Hospital said it had 150 patients waiting for discharge in March
- ‘They appear to be doing very little about it,’ says local councillor Ian Kettle
Claudia Tanner For Mailonline
17
View
comments
A patient has been stranded in hospital for nearly 500 days – despite being medically fit to leave.
The individual, believed to be an elderly woman, has been eligible for discharge for a staggering 16 months but instead remains in a bed.
Chiefs at Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley, West Midlands, say they are working to resolve what is said to be the worst case of bed blocking in the UK.
But senior Tory councillor Ian Kettle has blasted the woman’s 490-day stay as a ‘tremendous’ waste of resources.
He also claimed the inability to move the patient from the hospital has cost up to 100 other patients a bed.
It comes as MPs were warned back in April that bed blocking in NHS hospitals has soared thanks to the ‘appallingly casual attitude’ of NHS managers to missing a target to save £500m.
‘It is rather alarming one individual can take up a bed for this long’ said Dudley Councillor Kettle (file photo)
Councillor Kettle, who sits on Dudley council’s cabinet, said the long delay in getting the patient discharged was unacceptable.
He said: ‘We talk about the management of the health service. Most people would regard this as absurd and they appear to be doing very little about it.
-
Scientists successfully remove ‘gender bending’ chemical BPA…
Students PLAN hangovers: Young people schedule headaches,…
Quitting statins after a stroke raises risk of a second…
Family of baby with same disease as Charlie Gard vows to…
MPS WARNED OF BED BLOCKING CRISIS
Bed blocking in NHS hospitals has soared thanks to the ‘appallingly casual attitude’ of those in charge of social care funding, MPs have found.
The Better Care Fund was set up in 2013 to help reduce the number of elderly people having to stay needlessly in hospital because local councils cannot provide care for them.
It was also designed to save money and to reduce the number of emergency admissions of elderly people to hospitals.
Those in charge of the fund were given a target to save £500million a year from the budget spent on emergency admissions and delayed transfers of care – but instead the cost rose by £460million.
In a highly-critical report, the Commons public administration committee said Department of Health officials were far too complacent over the fact they had missed their targets by such a wide margin.
They said the £5.3billion Better Care Fund was little more than a ‘complicated ruse’ to transfer money from health to town halls to ‘paper over the funding pressures’.
While the Fund was supposed to have led to a reduction of delayed transfers of care from hospital into the community by 293,000, in the end it rose by 185,000.
‘It is rather alarming one individual can take up a bed for this long. If the average person spends four or five days in hospital that is 100 people that could have used the facility.’
Social care system bottleneck
The delay is understood to be due to problems moving the patient into the social care system.
The revelation comes as Russells Hall admitted it has had to cope with an extra 30 patients a day this year.
The hospital also said bed blocking at the hospital reached an all-time high in March, with 150 patients waiting on wards to be discharged.
Conservative councillor Nicolas Barlow, social care boss at Dudley Council, said: ‘The safety and welfare of an individual is always our priority.
‘In this case, we have been working closely with the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and the patient’s family to find and agree a solution that provides the best possible care.’
Diane Wake, chief executive of the Dudley Group NHS Trust, which runs Russells Hall, said: ‘We are aware the family of the patient are in discussion with Dudley CCG and Dudley Council about finding an amicable resolution.
‘The reason the patient has not left hospital is a matter between the family and partner organisations.’
Share or comment on this article
-
LICE-nce to drive! Horrified passenger secretly films… -
‘I smiled as he was pumped full of bullets’: Father… -
Couple ‘streamed live webcam shows of them sexually… -
‘Outrageous, insulting, ignorant and foolish!’ White… -
Rap legend Kidd Creole, 57, is charged with ‘stabbing to… -
Tragedy of Duchess of Cambridge’s childhood friend who… -
Killed by porn: Six women and girls whose lives were… -
Brazen couple are filmed having sex at a bus stop ‘on… -
Pictured: Family planning GP, 47, charged with 118 sexual… -
A corner of Wiltshire where the Raj never died:… -
‘Engine failure! It’s going to land on the beach!’ First… -
‘We’ve just had enough’: Mother of murdered model Sally… -
‘Gruff, elegant, twinkly, and always dignified’: Robert… -
Model, 28, who tried to steal £1,000 worth of designer… -
Ex-EastEnders actor, 24, who played Ian Beale’s son Peter… -
Grieving mother is hit by a double tragedy after losing… -
Are you a sunbed dasher? Hilarious videos of… -
Le phoney! British liberals love him but in France, the…
Comments 17
Share what you think
-
Newest -
Oldest -
Best rated -
Worst rated
The comments below have not been moderated.
The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.
Close
Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual.
Close
Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual
We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook.
You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.