South West hospital 'bed blocking' figures revealed

More than 13,000 people are unable to leave hospitals in England each day - despite being classed as fit to leave

New figures show about half of patients who are classed as fit to leave remain in hospitals in the South West at the end of an average day.

At Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, 52% of patients classed as fit to leave were still occupying a bed at midnight, data from the BBC Data Unit shows.

The data illustrates the extent of delayed discharges - or "bed blocking" - at acute hospital trusts in England.

The government said it had invested an extra £600m to try to tackle the issue.

'Biggest obstacle'

At the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital and North Devon District Hospital, the delayed discharge figure was 57%.

At Torbay Hospital, it was 48%, data from the year up to June showed.

Nationally, the figure is 58%, with about 13,000 people stuck in hospital each day when they were well enough to leave.

According to the data, a lack of available social care packages in the local authority area was behind almost half of all those delayed discharges.

The figures show that across England, the biggest obstacle was a lack of beds in other settings, such as care homes and community hospitals.

The Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital and North Devon District Hospital saw a combined delay in discharges of 57%

Ann James, the chief executive of University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, said: "We're working daily with our partners. We understand what the gaps are.

"That might be about workforce, that might be the type of care that we need - dementia care being one of those examples - and we work really constructively together to use whatever resource we've got.

"We've got some additional winter monies to develop new services or reinforce the services we've got."

Ms James said the trust was "working very hard" to bring down the number of delayed discharges.

'Record' investment

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: "It is vital people receive the right care in the right place and we are working to ensure patients are discharged safely from hospital as soon as they are medically fit to do so.

"A record £1.6bn investment is supporting this, on top of the £700m to ease hospital pressures over last winter and the £42.6m fund to support innovation in adult social care.

"To further bolster the workforce, we are continuing our Made With Care recruitment campaign - designed to reach millions of people - and the average pay for care workers has also increased.

"Staff retention is equally as important which is why we are also investing almost £2bn over two years to help councils support the workforce."

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