Health CommitteeSupplementary written evidence from the Local Government Association (ES 43)

During our evidence session Andrew Webster stated that although delayed discharges from hospital into social care can be a problem they are, in fact, going down and delayed discharges “attributable to social care are going down faster than those that are attributable to things in the health system.”

The evidence we used for this statement can be found in the report “Delayed Transfers of Care: Statistics for England 2012/13” published in May 2013.1

The specific points in the report are as follows:

On delayed discharge going down

“In 201213, the daily average number of delayed transfers of care per 100,000 population (aged 18+) was 9.5, which compares to 9.7 in 201112.”

On delays attributable to local government going down

“In 201213 the daily average number of delayed transfers of care attributable to social care per 100,000 population was 3.3, which compares with 3.7 in 201112.”

There is additional information available in the “Statistical Press Notice: Monthly Critical Care Beds, Cancelled Urgent Operations, Delayed Transfers of Care Data, England April 2013”.2

This report shows that:

“There were 112,994 total delayed days during the month, of which 70,028 were acute. 68% of all delays were attributable to the NHS, 26% were attributable to Social Care and 6%, where both agencies were responsible”

“The distribution of delays has been changing gradually over the past 12 months. Delays attributable to the NHS now account for 68% of all delays compared to 63% in April 2012”.

26 June 2013