Shropshire bed blocking cases drop with council among most improved

It said bed blocking and transfer to adult social care had dropped dramatically in the past three years.

And figures show it is now one of the best performing authorities in the country.

The average number of daily delays with the NHS in the county – or bed blocking – had dropped from an average of 17.85 delay delays in 2015/16 compared to 9.26 per day in 2018/19. The number of delays for transfer to adult social care has dropped from 14.61 in 2016/17 to 0.32 in 2018/19.

Councillor Dean Carroll said the drop in numbers was “remarkable” and paid tribute to officers and staff for making the change. He told cabinet last week said: “Tribute must be paid to these hard working officers and staff who have made this a reality. It is nothing short of remarkable.”

Tom Dodds, Intelligence and Insight Manager at the council, said in his report to cabinet: “The Delayed Transfer of Care measure was established in April 2017.

“National targets have been set to reduce the number of patients who are delayed in their transfer from hospital.

“The aim is to reduce bed blocking to less than 3.5 per cent of all available NHS beds.

“The target for the first year (2017/18) for Shropshire Adult Social Care, set by the Department of Health, was to reduce delays attributed to social care by 60 per cent. Performance targets for 2018/19 were to further reduce delays to less than an average of 1.3 delayed patients per day, attributed to Adult Social Care.

“Performance for 2018/19 shows that Shropshire Council is achieving this target and is one the most improved Adult Social Care departments in England, performing within the top quartile.”

“During the year the average daily due to Adult Social Care was 0.32 people.

“The following table shows the performance improvement across both health and social care to reduce the average patient delays per day for Shropshire residents.”