By Marjory Inglis, health reporter

MOST SCOTTISH health boards have named “community care arrangements” as the most common reason for delayed discharges from hospital.

People who no longer need the services available in the hospital where they received initial treatment remain there because there are insufficient resources available elsewhere to support them in a more appropriate setting, usually a nursing home.

The latest national figures, for the three months to October, trail behind the more regular updates available to local health chiefs and reported previously.

The figures show a marginal decrease for the quarter in Tayside (down five from the July figure of 177) and a marginal increase in Fife (up four from 119).

When the October figures in Tayside were discussed publicly in November by local health chiefs they again identified a lack of nursing home beds in areas patients preferred.

Looking at the figures for the full year, the health bosses said the overall trend was downwards, but they identified a wait of up to four years for places in some popular nursing homes as a delay factor.

They were told popular homes in Broughty Ferry and elsewhere had agreed to close their waiting lists because there was little prospect of people being transferred from hospital to such homes.

In November nursing director Liz Wilson said action was taken to prevent people being placed on unrealistic waiting lists and thus continuing to take up a hospital bed when it could more appropriately be offered to someone else on a waiting list for treatment.

“If they (nursing homes) have got a four year waiting list that is not feasible for people sitting in a hospital bed and waiting for a place there,” said Mrs Wilson. “The private sector (who own nursing homes) have been very responsive and will not take on patients on waiting lists that are four years long.”