News

Number of Notts adults waiting to be discharged from hospital drops by up to two thirds

By Lauren Monaghan, Junior Local Democracy Reporter

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The number of adult patients stuck in hospital beds every day in Nottinghamshire who are well enough to go home has dropped by up to two thirds.

Nottinghamshire County Council’s Adult Social Care and Public Health Select Committee met yesterday (March 3) to discuss performance updates in adult health and social care.

A report read by the committee detailed work done between social care and health organisations to reduce the lengths of time people are waiting for support at home after a hospital admission.

The council’s social care teams support an average of 458 people a month to get home when they have received care from Nottingham University Hospitals Trust, and Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust.

The number of people in Nottinghamshire waiting in hospital beds but well enough to go home has halved, dropping from 300 to 150 a day in the last year, the committee heard.

Gemma Whysall, System Delivery Director for Urgent Care, said current processes are “slicker, quicker and more efficient”, saying the number of people waiting to leave hospital on any given day in Nottinghamshire is now  “about 100” compared to about 300 a day at this time last year.

Increased social work capacity and more efficient data showing which people are waiting for support and in what facility has reduced the amount of time people are waiting for social work assessments and support once their hospital care has finished.

People were waiting three days for re-ablement support – helpin them to regain their independence when they return home – from social workers in May 2024, but this has dropped to 1.8 days in December 2024.

Cllr Philip Owen (Con) asked: “Of the 100 people in hospital this morning, by tomorrow, all 100 of them will be out of hospital tomorrow?”

Responding to Cllr Owen, Cllr Jonathan Wheeler (Con) said: “It depends on the individual circumstance of where in the county they are, some councils in the north of the county who don’t have any temporary accommodation themselves, so it might take the [County Council] a few days to find them accommodation.”

Nicola Peace, Group Manager, Urgent and Emergency Care, said 10 of these people will go to adult social care services, less than 10 will not leave the hospital by the following day, and the rest will be waiting to be transferred from the hospital and “transfer of care hubs”.

This “hub” allows health organisations to link so they can co-ordinate and discuss the options of care in a patient’s discharge.

Ms Peace added there are still problems with transport for patients going home and organising the medications they are sent home with.

Cllr Owen said: “I’m at a loss to understand why this is so problematic, you’ve got pharmacists in hospitals- from what you’re telling me the left hand and the right hand are not necessarily talking to one another as quickly as they should.”

Cllr Wheeler responded: “It’s a partnership game with the NHS and the ICB, we can’t control the pharmacists we are working with them as best we can.”

Ms Peace said that 95 per cent of patients sent to the transfer of care hub before 12pm go home the same day, with four per cent being sent to an NHS rehabilitation facility.

She added: “This means we virtually reduce the amount of people in hospital who go to long-term care to nearly zero. Previously we’ve had to make decisions about people at the wrong time. Now people have the support to re-able them to maximise their independence.

“The [remaining] one per cent may be end-of-life or require significant, complex interventions and they go into nursing support facilities. All of those placements can take up to 28 days to resolve and move on.”

For the current financial year ending March 31, a government grant of £7,224,972 for adult social care and around £6.7 million for the integrated care board in Nottinghamshire has helped fund extra capacity for social workers and help ensure more timely patient discharges from hospital.