- FoI Number
- 2022-781
- Subject
- Delayed Discharges Daily Data
- Date Received
- 06/03/2023
- Request and Response
-
Under the FOI Act please provide me with the information below.
1. The number of inpatients who are currently medically fit to leave hospital in your area, but still reside there.
Please provide this as a series of data points for the last calendar year and the year to date, broken down by day. For each day, please break the data into further categories which detail the reason behind the delayed discharge.
I am aware that some of the data showing the total number of delayed transfers of care is published here: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/discharge-delays-acute-data/ however I am looking for further information relating to the cause of the discharge delay.
For example, the Welsh Government also used to publish a detailed breakdown of reasons behind delayed discharge - https://statswales.gov.wales/Catalogue/Health-and-Social-Care/NHS-Performance/Delayed-Transfers-of-Care
By way of illustration, a response may look like this:
01/01/22 - 100 people awaiting discharge, 20 awaiting physiotherapy, 30 awaiting transport home, 50 awaiting care packages
02/01/22 - 90 people awaiting discharge, 15 awaiting physiotherapy, 30 awaiting transport home, 45 awaiting care packages
And so on….
Please provide this data in a spreadsheet format such as excel or a .csv file, with columns for the date, total number of patients and reasons for delay.
In accordance with FOISA s 16(1), NHS Shetland confirms that it holds the information requested but that it is exempt from disclosure under FOISA s 38(1)(b) as read with s 38 (2A) as the information constitutes personal data and disclosure would breach the confidentiality of the data subjects.
The number of people in question is such that breaking down the data by reason for delay would give detailed information about individual patient’s circumstances. For example that someone awaiting a place in a local authority residential home was discharge on X date.
Furthermore the number of people in question is such that providing daily total delayed discharges would identify individual delayed discharge patient’s exact date of discharge.
We can however provide figures for weekly snapshot delayed discharges, see attached spreadsheet.
Reason for delay at census point codes used during this time period were:
9 User with codes 24DX, 24EX, 25X, 26X, 42X, 46X, 51X, 71X 71 Patient exercising statutory right of choice 74 Other patient/carer/family-related reason 11A Awaiting commencement of post-hospital social care assessment (including transfer to another area team). Socail care includes home care & social work OT 11B Awaiting completion of post-hospital social care assessment (including transfer to another area team). Social care includes home care and social work OT 24A Awaiting place availability in Local Authority Residential Home (Respite or Interm) 24D Awaiting place availability in Specialist Residential Facility for younger age groups (<65) 25A Awaiting completion of social care arrangement for Care Home placement 25D waiting completion of social care arrangements - In order to live in their own home - awaiting social support (non-availability of services) 25E Awaiting completion of social care arrangement - In order to live in their own home - awaiting procurement/delivery of equipment/adaptations fitted 25F Awaiting completion of social care arrangements - Specialist Housing provision (including sheltered housing and homeless patients) With regards to delay code 9:
24DX* Awaiting place availability in Specialist Facility for younger age groups (<65) where the Facility is not available 24EX Awaiting place availability in Specialist Facility for older age groups (65+) where Facility is no available 25X Awaiting completion of comples care arrangements - in order to live in their own home 26X Care Home/facility closed - patient well but cannot be discharged at point of census 42X Awaiting bed availability in other NHS hospital/specialty/facility when no facilities exist in the NHS Board Area 46X* Ward closed - patient well but cannot be discharged/transferred due to closure at point of census 51X Adults with Incapacity Act 71X Patient exercising statutory right of choice - interm placement is not possible or reasonable
