Royal Cornwall Hospital: Up to 200 'wait to be discharged'

Trust chief executive Steve Williamson urged the board to write to the Integrated Care Board, which aims to bring the NHS together locally, to ensure that more is done to help

Hospital staff have been trying to discharge up to 200 people, equivalent to seven full wards, from the Royal Cornwall Hospital.

The Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust (RCHT), said bed-blocking was affecting other services in the hospital and across the health system in Cornwall.

Trust chief executive Steve Williamson told the trust's board that work to relieve the situation was not working.

He called it an "exceptional challenge".

The Royal Cornwall Hospital has been reporting for months that beds are being blocked by patients who are medically fit to be discharged but have no care services ready for them to go to.

'Under increasing pressure'

In a report to the board Mr Williamson said that there were "up to 200 people - the equivalent of seven full wards across acute and community hospitals in Cornwall - who have finished their hospital treatment and are ready for discharge from hospital".

He said they should "either be in their own home with care support or in other appropriate settings, to continue their reablement and to maintain and maximise their ongoing independence", said the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

He added: "Without these delays there would be sufficient hospital bed capacity within Cornwall to accommodate emergency admissions, as well as those waiting for planned procedures."

Mr Williamson said: "The pressures that Royal Cornwall Hospital faces with the number of patients waiting for discharge to care services is increasing.

"We are under increasing pressure and challenges."

He urged the board to write to the Integrated Care Board, which aims to bring the NHS together locally, to ensure that more is done to help.