Figures reveal 'underfunding' of social care in Calderdale

Patients at Calderdale Royal Hospital have suffered a delayed discharge 665 times since 2016.
Calderdale Royal HospitalCalderdale Royal Hospital
Calderdale Royal Hospital

A delayed discharge occurs when a patient, clinically ready for discharge, cannot leave hospital because the other necessary care, support or accommodation for them is not available.

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One 80-year-old woman waited 93 days because she was waiting for a care package in her home, while an 89-yearold woman waited 85 days for the same reason. a 64-year-old man waited 69 days for a place in a residential home, while an 80-year-old man waited 50 days for public funding.

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Figures released under the Freedom of information act also reveal that 16 patients have died since 2016 while waiting to be discharged.

Halifax MP Holly Lynch said: “these worrying figures highlight the challenges faced by our health and social care system.

“We have an ageing population with increasingly complex needs, and this makes it harder to discharge patients. Calderdale’s figures compare favourably to other local authorites, butwe urgently need national action to properly fund our health and social care systems.”

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Rob Demaine from Unison said: “We need to look at how we can improve integration between healthcare and social services. the main reason for delays is underfunding of social services to enable them to be discharged back into the community and not enough social workers to help them.”

Director of urgent care and head of discharge planning and performance, Bev Walker, said: “every year the trust manages around 122,000 discharges. ensuring everything is in place canbe a very complex process especially for frail, elderly patients and we work very hard with our health and social care partners to reflect the wishes of our patients and their families.

"After a lot of hard work, we have one of the best delayed transfer to care performance figures in the country yet we recognise we and our partners could always improve and streamline still further.