Patients blocking beds in county at lowest level

Some weeks, up to three wards are being freed for patients in need of a bed in Gloucestershire

Bed blocking at Gloucestershire hospitals are at its lowest recorded number following "amazing" progress to free up beds.

Gloucestershire Hospital Foundation Trust has been focusing on patients with No Criteria to Reside (NCTR) - those remaining in hospital once they are ready to go home - to support flow and improve response times across all services.

The trust reported 107 with NCTR in early September, compared to an average of 186 throughout 2023/24.

Mary Hutton, care board chief executive, wants the figure to be as low as possible.

At the health overview and scrutiny committee meeting at Shire Hall on 15 October, Adrian Bamford, a Cheltenham Borough Councillor, said the "bed blocker" figures were extremely promising, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Mr Bamford said: "There is an average figure of 186 last year and we've got that to 107.

"If that is true, you are freeing up almost three wards there.

"107 is still bad but on the other hand that is a massive improvement. Has that been sustained?"

'Work to do'

Mary Hutton, chief executive of NHS Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board, said the board wants to get the figure as low as possible.

She added the number of people in hospital for more than 21 days has reduced "very significantly".

"We want to be the best we can possibly be, where we are at the moment is not that and we still have more work to do," Ms Hutton said.

"We have increased capacity and we have got a lot more to learn about the capacity we need to move people on.

"We want to get to the figures you're talking about but we are not there consistently."

Al Sherward, Gloucestershire NHS Trust's chief operating officer, said: "We have made amazing progress.

"I'm still optimistic we can get to below 100 as we go into the new year, if all things are considered to be true."