Labour and SNP deal double blow to care

Around once a month in Scotland, we get new statistics on something called “delayed discharge” which refers to the number of people who can’t leave hospital despite being well enough to do so.

- Alex Cole-Hamilton

That paradox is largely because the post-hospital care they need at home or in the community just isn’t there.

For the period of their delay, their hospital bed is not a place of treatment; it is simply another waiting room. That radiates out into the entire system. If fewer hospital beds are available, the longer people wait in A&E and the longer it takes ambulances to unload.