Dave Thompson MSP

Dave Thompson SNP MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch has welcomed the news that the Scottish Government is giving NHS Highland £6.1million this year to help reduce the numbers of people waiting to be discharged from hospital. The money will also be used to support health boards and local authorities deliver good quality care and support for people at home or in a homely setting.

Commenting on this, Mr Thompson said, “This £6.1M is in addition to the even bigger sum of £9.4 million awarded to NHS Highland last week.

Together this is a remarkable injection of funds for the NHS in the Highlands and Islands in the current year, and is in addition to the capital projects progressing on new state of the art Hospitals across my constituency in Badenoch, Skye and Fort William.

Dave went on, “And this from the SNP Scottish Government at a time of unprecedented financial pressure from the Con-Dem UK Government as they continue their misguided economy constraining policy of Austerity come what may.

Notes:

Scottish Government Press Release:

£100 million for delayed surcharge

Funding over three years to increase social care capacity.

A further £100 million over three years is to be invested in the NHS to help reduce the numbers of people waiting to be discharged from hospital.

This funding will be used to support health boards and local authorities deliver good quality care and support for people at home or in a homely setting.

This is aimed at preventing delays in discharge and preventing admissions to hospital and attendances at A&E. Combined these actions will reduce pressure across the system.

Reducing the number of people waiting to be discharged from hospital is a key priority of the Scottish Government and this funding forms part of its wider commitment to integrating health and social care services.

Today’s funding will allow the government to work closely with local authorities and health boards to deliver reductions in the level of delayed discharges and bed days associated with them.

Health Secretary Shona Robison said:

“Tackling delayed discharge is an absolute key priority for this government and today’s announcement of £100 million over the next three years is crucial to this effort.

“Reducing delayed discharge not only helps individual patients, who benefit from getting home or to a homely setting as quickly as possible, but also helps ease pressure across the system.

“However, this is about far more than just investment, it forms part of the Government’s overarching commitment to implementing the integration of health and social care services across Scotland.

“This will involve health boards working closer than ever with local government in a new relationship to deliver the right care to people in the right place at the right time.

“It will also include a shared commitment to deliver on key issues, such as discharging patients within 72 hours of clinical readiness, and reducing the number of hospital admissions that are avoidable.

Today’s announcement builds on the significant progress made to devise new and innovative ways to improve the flow of patients through health and care services. We will continue to support this work, together with our partners in the NHS and local government, to reshape the health and social care system as we work towards integration coming into force in April.

A taskforce has been set up with COSLA to roll out plans to support delayed discharge improvement.

Councillor Peter Johnston, COSLA’s Health and Well-being Spokesperson, said:

“This is a timely investment from the Scottish Government – amidst a challenging operating environment for councils and health boards. The new Health and Social Care Partnerships will be forming in April and this resource will act as a real catalyst in making inroads into delayed discharge. Last November, council leaders took the landmark decision to focus on transferring people from hospital within 72 hours of their discharge date. Although a challenging aspiration, this resource will be crucial in helping partnerships to redesign services and create an even greater focus on supporting people to live independently at home.

“We will be taking a report to Council Leaders at the end of this month which will describe the investment in more detail. This new resource underpins a shared commitment between the Scottish Government and COSLA to improve performance, deliver on agreed objectives, and work with trust and reciprocity.

A local breakdown of funding is as follows:

The funding of £100 million will be split as follows:

2015/16: £30 million 2016/17: £35 million 2017/18: £35 million

2015/16 funding will come from consequentials, with the remaining £70 million coming from subsequent health budgets.

Today’s funding announcement comes on top of £10 million committed by the Scottish Government in 2014 to tackle delayed discharge.

In recent months NHS Lothian has received £1,762,000 from the Scottish Government to tackled delayed discharge.