Gray: I want to turn the corner on delayed discharge in 2025

Health Secretary Neil Gray says he wants 2025 to be the year the Government can turn the corner on improving delayed discharge in Scotland’s hospitals.

Reflecting on his first 12 months in the job and the year ahead, Mr Gray said he also wants to see A&E waiting time performance get better.

Opposition parties have regularly attacked the SNP on delayed discharge rates, saying successive ministers have failed to eradicate the problem and allowed pressure to build up in the NHS.

Delayed discharge refers to a patient being stuck in hospital when they are medically fit to leave, often because of a lack of care solutions outside the hospital.

Speaking to journalists at Edinburgh Napier University on Thursday, Mr Gray was asked if he had achieved all he wanted in his first year as Health Secretary.

He told the PA news agency: “I think any health secretary would say that there’s more that can be achieved.

“I don’t think anyone could suggest that I haven’t being putting my full time and weight behind seeking improvement there.”

The SNP minister said he had been co-chairing weekly meetings with local government body Cosla on improving delayed discharge, without which “the position would have been much worse than what it is right now”.

Mr Gray said he is determined to improve the situation, saying there are roughly 2,000 patients across Scotland who are delayed in hospital when they should not be.

Pressed on whether he will turn a corner on the issue in 2025, he said: “I certainly want that to be the case.

“I’ve managed to get part of the budget, £100 million, to improve flow and innovation – the adoption of innovation for health and social care.”

He said this innovation will create more capacity and allow more patients to be dealt with in primary care.

The Government aims to “hit the ground running” when the new financial year begins on April 1, he said, working with health boards to reduce hospital occupancy and length of stay.

The Health Secretary continued: “I want to see all of that contributing to an improvement of the situation in 2025.”

The Scottish Conservatives said Mr Gray has effectively been “sidelined” by the First Minister, who has been chairing weekly meetings with NHS leaders on winter pressures.

Health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said: “Neil Gray should be embarrassed at his level of ambition for Scotland’s NHS.

“A decade ago his colleague Shona Robison promised to eradicate delayed discharge in our hospitals, yet he only wants to turn the corner on it.

“And merely looking to improve A&E waiting times will be cold comfort to the thousands of patients suffering deadly delays every single week on his watch

“Having already been sidelined by John Swinney, it is clear Neil Gray is not up to the task of solving the crisis in the NHS.”