Hospital discharge target 'has led to improvements', says care home body

Targets to move patients who are fit to leave hospital into care homes within 48 hours has improved the discharge process, a care home body has said.

The measure was introduced by all five health trusts in December to ease emergency department pressures.

However, Pauline Shepherd, the chief executive of Independent Health and Care Providers (ICHP), said it was not a long-term solution.

She called for better funding of community and social care.

Ms Shepherd told Good Morning Ulster: “What I’m gathering from our members is that yes, there have been care beds utilised and there’s capacity being used.

“However, there are still pockets of capacity available.”

Emergency department backlogs can often stem from not being able to admit people onto wards due to a lack of available beds.

Ms Shepherd said there had been an improvement in communication between hospitals and care home providers over the Christmas and new year period.

Under the measures, if hospital inpatients are medically fit their families can be asked to take them home if they can, or agree to admit them to the first suitable care home anywhere in Northern Ireland if they cannot go home.

Those who are discharged into care homes are put on a waiting list for care packages that will allow them ultimately to to be looked after in their own homes.

Ms Shepherd said: “I believe there are people in care homes that would prefer to be at home.

“It’s a more appropriate place than sitting in a hospital or lying in a hospital bed.”

Having someone take a step back to see where the beds are available across Northern Ireland may seem like a simple and obvious strategy but it is actually a very complicated process.

Until these targets were introduced last month, each trust has been doing its own thing and now they are required to look at all of the different health trusts as one.

If you live in Belfast, you may be offered a bed much further away simply because that is where one is available.

Despite the improved discharge process, these are marginal gains that won’t fix everything.

But even if every trust can release a few beds and can discharge patients very quickly, that will allow some patients to move from the emergency department and onto a ward and that is a welcome improvement.

Ms Shepherd described matching patients with suitable care home places as a “logistical nightmare”.

“The only thing that will solve it is actually to look at a long term funding plan and a health and social care system that reflects demographic change and is capable of meeting the rising demands,” she added.