THIRTY-TWO patients remained in hospital this month despite being fit to be discharged, Health has revealed as officials continue long-running efforts to tackle bed-blocking.
The Islanders were unable to leave the General Hospital due to a shortage of nursing-home beds, specialist care and low availability of care packages in the community.
The latest bed-blocking statistics have fallen from a high of 40 to 50 patients last summer but in a statement Health provided to the JEP the department said it still faced “significant recruitment pressures” both in Jersey and globally which were leading to delays.
And Jersey Care Federation chair Cheryl Kenealy said the matter was still “a major concern” which she would be discussing with Health Minister Tom Binet.
A paper covering bed-blocking, referred to by the department as Delayed Transfers of Care, was presented to the Health Advisory Board in March of this year.
Figures shared with the board showed a decline in numbers of delayed transfers from more than 40 in September 2023 to fewer than 20 in December and January, but then rising again during the first quarter of 2024.
In a statement issued last week, Emily Hoban, head of access for the Health Department, said: “Planning for a patient’s discharge begins as soon as they are admitted to hospital, with assessments undertaken to ensure that the right arrangements are in place for when they are medically fit to leave.
“Significant recruitment pressures facing the nursing and care sectors in Jersey and globally has resulted in a reduction in the availability of nursing-home beds and some delays in obtaining packages of care in the Island.
“This impacts our ability to discharge patients in a timely way – last week the Hospital had 32 patients who no longer needed to be in hospital but were unable to leave, particularly due to a lack of available nursing-home beds, specialist care and availability of care packages in the community.”
Members of the Health Advisory Board, who are due to meet today, were presented with an action plan during their March meeting. Components of the plan included:
*Development and strengthening of the discharge team, to include a third social worker and an assistant.
*Refreshing the discharge policy, to include a clear position around patient choice with a view to reducing the number of people waiting in a hospital bed until their preferred placement became available.
*Exploring options to provide increased specialist dementia care outside the Hospital.
*Working collectively with the whole health and social care system and care sector, the aim being “to build trust and establish a collective, system-wide approach to addressing this problem in the long term”.
Bed-blocking was in the spotlight previously in August 2021, with the managing director of the Hospital at the time, Rob Sainsbury, addressing the issue during a Scrutiny hearing.
Mr Sainsbury said that there were around 20 to 25 patients on any given day who were fit for discharge but could not leave the Hospital, but added that the issue was less of a problem in Jersey than the UK.
In November 2022, figures showed there were 22 “delayed transfer” patients in the General Hospital and a further 13 in mental-health facilities, with one Islander criticising Health for a delay of more than a month in discharging her mother – aged in her 80s – from hospital.
