Norfolk and Norwich Hospital unable to discharge 180 patients

Patients are being kept on the wards at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital because they cannot be discharged

A senior hospital nurse said she could not discharge 180 patients due to a lack of "care and support" at home.

Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital said among the people that did not need to be in hospital was a patient who had been there for 145 days.

Claire Fare, senior discharge matron, said delays "impact on the whole of the flow" of patients.

Norfolk County Council's social care department blamed the "national care crisis" for the problems.

In June, the hospital, which has about 1,200 beds, pleaded for family and friends to help look after fit patients to ease demand.

Hospitals across England have faced increasing pressures from backlogs caused by the pandemic.

They have also seen admissions rise from Covid, alongside staff off with the virus or isolating.

Some patients need to be assessed by social services before they can be discharged

Ms Fare said the patients the hospital was unable to discharge were medically fit but needed support either in a care home, or more commonly in their own home.

"We are struggling to get the care and support they need to get them to leave," she said.

Melanie Syson, the hospital's discharge coordinator, said there was a person in the hospital ready for discharge that had been there for more than four months.

"She is medically fit to be discharged but we are waiting for support to be ready at home," she said.

Ms Syson added: "The length of stay of the patients seems to be getting longer."

To help cope with the delays, the hospital opened a "home-first unit" in January for patients who did not need acute care but it was unable to discharge.

The unit focuses on rehabilitation to try to prevent the patients coming back into hospital or requiring more care at home.

Stephanie Ward, the ward sister, said it aimed to "give patients the time they need to do things themselves as much as they can".

'If I'm at home I've all I need'

Patient David Freeman is unable to go home because the care he needs is not in place

David Freeman is one of those patients who is medically fit to be discharged but does not have care in place for his needs.

He said he was hoping he would leave hospital next week "but in reality I expect it will take a little longer than that".

The 70-year-old is recovering from a brain tumour which has left him with "a lot of tiredness, I am awake in the morning but in the afternoon I would frequently fall asleep," he said.

"My family are incredibly supportive and the Norfolk and Norwich are wonderful," he added.

Mr Freeman said it was important for him to go home because he did not want some of his family coming into the hospital as they were clinically vulnerable and he was worried about Covid.

"If I'm at home I've got all the things I need," he said.

Abby Cummings, team manager of Norfolk County Council's social care department for discharging patients, said: "We are asking families to do a lot more than we ever have done.

"There's some people who are at home who haven't got adequate care to the level they need. That's really uncomfortable, but there is so much pressure in the care network - we just haven't got enough care to meet the demand we have."

Ms Cummings said there was a "national care crisis".

"We're seeing carers in the community go above and beyond to meet the needs of people but unfortunately we're still seeing a shortage," she said.

Mark Shepperd, director of integrated discharge for NHS Norfolk and Waveney, said it had "launched a plan which reduces the reliance on NHS beds" and would be "strengthening our resources to care for people at home or as close to home as possible".