HOSPITALS in Worcestershire face a bill of close to £10,000 a day because NHS staff are unable to discharge patients who are medically fit to go home.

Figures supplied by Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust which manages Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester show that there are, on average, 29 delayed discharges per day across three main hospitals.

It costs £311 per day to keep a patient in an acute hospital bed which means an average cost per day of £9,019 for the 29 delays.

Delays can occur when patients are waiting for complex assessments, a suitable local nursing or residential home, or have particular rehabilitation needs, for example following a stroke.

The situation is more complicated when patients live out of the county.

Lisa Davies-Jones, hospital director for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said as well as the financial implications, delays can cause patients additional distress.

“We work very closely with colleagues in health and social care to ensure that patients can be safely discharged back into their own homes with support packages which might include installation or loan of equipment or visits by clinical staff working in the community,” she said.

“Social care also arrange either temporary or permanent care in a nursing or residential home if it is required.”

Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust, which has community hospitals in Malvern, Pershore, Evesham, Tenbury and Bromsgrove, has an average of 16 delayed discharges a week, costing an average of £4,640 per day.

Since November the weekly figure has risen from four or five to 16 because community hospitals have been taking more patients from acute hospitals, particularly over the winter.

Jan Ditheridge, director of service delivery for the health and care trust, said the trust was working to provide patients with more care in their own homes.

“The more we do this, the longer patients will be able to stay in their own home rather than being looked after in a community hospital or in full-time nursing or residential care, and this in turn will reduce delayed discharges across Worcestershire.”

Jonathan Monks, Worcestershire County Council’s hospitals and access manager, said 28 per cent of delayed discharges in 2011/12 were caused by a lack of care home places, with the others waiting for a community hospital bed or intermediate care.

There are currently about 5,600 places in Worcestershire and Mr Monks said the county council was increasing the number, although he was unable to say by how many.

Both the county council and NHS Worcestershire are currently looking to make spending cuts at a time when pressure on services is growing with the older population (over 65s) increasing by three to four per cent per year.