PATIENTS at Barnsley Hospital spent 347 days in beds they did not need over a one month period, new figures have revealed.

They were kept in for a number of reasons, including waiting for a care home place, waiting for care packages and because they were waiting for non-urgent NHS care.

This is called a ‘delayed transfer of care’, often referred to as bed blocking.

As soon as it is decided a patient it ready to go home or be transferred, but remains in hospital, the patient is classed as a ‘delayed transfer.’

The data is based on the number of additional days patients have spent in hospital, not the number of patients.

The figures show patients spent 251 unnecessary days waiting for non-urgent NHS care, and 63 days waiting for a care package in their own home. In addition, 18 days were spent waiting for the completion of assessments, ten days were spent waiting for a place in a residential home and four days were spent in hospital at either the patient or the family’s request. One day was spent waiting for public funding.

Ben Brewis, the hospital’s deputy director of operations, said while the numbers seem high, it does not equate to that many patients.

He said: “The data is based on the number of delayed days, not the number of patients. One patient in one bed for ten days is ten bed days.

“Throughout October there will have been ten or 11 patients at any one time wanting to move out of hospital and into community care.

“However, there has been a jump up from summer which is reflective of this time of year, and the figures are higher than what we are previously used to, and higher than previous years.

“We are continually working with our partners at South West Yorkshire NHS Foundation Trust and the council to make enough beds in care homes available.

“We are doing everything we can - we have made additional money available to purchase additional care home beds in five different care homes.

“We have also launched our own intermediate care service on site, the transition ward (where patients go when they are not ill enough to be in hospital, but not well enough to go home). Moving a service from one hospital (Mount Vernon) to another, it needs to bed in and time to establish itself, but that is going from strength to strength now.

“We can predict how many people are coming in, and how many will need beds. The Barnsley healthcare system has had more money made available should it need it.

“If there are more beds, then there won’t be a delay in getting people to them.”

Ben said the data was collected to try and prevent hospitals coming to a standstill. If a hospital has too many delayed transfers of care, action can be taken by the NHS England and the government to ensure improvements.