Blackpool Victoria Hospital missing its target for long stay patients

New figures revealed some patients are getting “super stranded” in beds delaying operations for others.

The research shows a total of 182 operations at the Vic were cancelled from January to March at the last minute.

Out of those 13 (7.1 per cent) were still waiting for a new date for a month.

Part of the blame has been put down Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust struggling to reduce the number of people in hospital for more than 21 days - classed as “super stranded”.

This is one of the main reasons given for operation and appointments being cancelled at trusts throughout the country.

From January to March , the Vic had a target limit of 136 patients or less to be ‘long stay’, however the actual number of long stay patients was 157.

The figures were released by CHS Healthcare which works in partnership with the NHS to provide in hospital discharge services.

Berenice Groves, Interim Director Of Operations for Unscheduled Care, for Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “The Trust has worked closely with local health and social care partners to reduce the number of delayed discharges over the past couple of years and has made significant improvements in those patients staying more than 21 days.

“This has been done as a result of working across the system with added input and support from local councils, community services, GPs and mental health teams as there is a growing understanding that a patient’s stay in hospital depends on a wide number of factors and requires the input of many health and social care partners.

“With this in mind we have held several Multi Agency Discharge Events this year that have strengthened partnership work and highlighted areas for development together to ensure a smoother flow of patients around the system to get those patients who don’t need to be in a hospital bed back to their preferred place of care.

“Appropriate and timely discharges are good for the health system but most importantly they are good for the patient.’’

She added: “Last year we had a 50% reduction in cancelled operations due to beds and this has continued.

“We recognise that postponing operations causes anxiety and disruption for our patients and their families so we work hard to ensure all scheduled procedures go ahead as planned. ‘’