'Bed-blocking' is hitting hospital services every day
BED-BLOCKING is having a huge impact on hospital services, HSC medical director Dr Peter Rabey has said, as new Health & Social Care figures were released.
Yesterday alone, 10 people were in the Princess Elizabeth Hospital who were fit enough to be discharged.
Last month that was as high as 20 people.
The problems with bed-blocking have more than doubled between 2021 and last year, and the monthly median average for this measure is currently 629 days, against a target of less than 100 days a month. Last year the average was 387 days a month.
‘This has been a huge impact on us,’ said HSC medical director Dr Peter Rabey.
‘It’s led to cancellations. It’s led to longer waiting times and it’s led to increased agency costs.’
The numbers come as the latest report on key performance indicators for secondary health care was released.
This was not just an HSC problem and was something that affected the entire island. It was also a problem in the UK and elsewhere, Dr Rabey said.
Patients affected are either waiting for space in a care home or to go back to their own home to have care provided there.
‘We are doing everything we can,’ said Dr Rabey.
‘The community teams have recruited as they can to find people to provide the packages of care that these patients need to get home.
‘But we need more care home places, we need more nursing home places, and that’s an island-wide problem that we can’t solve on our own.’
Part of the problem was recruitment, given high housing costs and that many of the jobs are not traditionally highly paid, as well as Brexit making it more difficult for some to live in Guernsey.
‘People in this business of providing care homes and nursing homes need to know that they can recruit and retain a viable workforce, otherwise they won’t invest in the sector.’
The States was doing what it could to help with licences and its plans to provide more accommodation for key workers.
Medical Specialist Group chairman Steve Evans is a geriatrician and said the issue of frail patients being stuck in hospital was a problem.
‘If you’re frail and you’re in hospital and you don’t need to be in hospital, then you’d be better off at home with a care package. You’d be better off in an appropriate placement where you’re getting the care and I think that that is really important.’
He echoed Dr Rabey’s comment that this was a problem in the UK and internationally, and it was going to become difficult to deal with due to the ageing demographic and people living longer.
HSC latest figures showed that of the 10 people still in the PEH, four needed a place in a care home, while the remainder were waiting for a care package in the community.
Guernsey Care Home Association chairwoman Jo Boyd said a range of factors could affect a patient being unable to move into a care home, such as financial constraints or waiting for a space in a specific care home.
‘There’s no blanket answer,’ she said.
The number of vacant beds fluctuated, but all the homes kept social workers up to date, since it was they who referred patients to the homes.
Like HSC, the care homes were having trouble recruiting staff and this shortage was not encouraging to anyone who might have thought about opening a new home in the island.
The availability of long-term care packages in the community was also being affected by the lack of staff to deliver them.
‘That’s a much more difficult problem to solve,’ she said.
