Number of Glasgow patients stuck in hospital putting services under 'extreme pressure'

Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow.
-Credit:Jane Barlow/PA Wire


A total of 170 patients in Glasgow are unable to leave hospitals as they wait for the right care to be ready elsewhere.

A health boss has warned "services are under extreme pressure" due to delayed discharges as he explained the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital has also been very busy with surge activity.

Patients being stuck in wards leads to hospitals becoming too full with not enough room for people who require medical attention.

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Among adults who end up delayed in hospitals are those needing home care, people with incapacity issues and patients under the age of 65 with complex health needs including motor neurone disease and spinal injuries, a meeting heard.

Pat Togher, Glasgow's health and social care chief officer, said hospital discharge is presenting "significant challenges" to the Health and Social Care Partnership.

He said over the past six weeks there have been "very high occupancy levels" in hospital.

Describing services being under "extreme pressure", he said: "We are more or less averaging around about 170 delayed discharges at the moment."

He added: "By way of example in terms of the activity - in Christmas week of last year we saw 67 known home care discharges in that week compared to the previous year where we had seen nine."

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Work has been taking place to deal with the discharge problem, Mr Togher told yesterday's Glasgow City Integration Joint Board meeting.

Pointing out how he met the Queen Elizabeth Hospital discharge team on Tuesday, Mr Togher said: "We are in the process of convening additional meetings in relation to hospital discharge to determine if there are any additional efficiencies that we can achieve. I think it is suffice to say the team working on this have done an exceptional job over an extremely difficult time.

"During which we have seen considerable episodes of surge activity within the hospital."

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