A STAGGERING £9.4 million pounds has been spent on keeping Ayrshire and Arran patients in hospital when they are perfectly fit to go home.

This could see a shortage in care for ill Cumnock residents as hospital beds are being taken up by people who don’t need them anymore.

It comes after a shocking 40,580 bed days were lost in 2018 after a spike in delayed discharges put extra pressure on the health board.

This means although a patient is medically cleared to go home they can’t actually leave, often because a social care package is not in place

Now South Scotland Labour MSP Colin Smyth is blaming the costs on cuts to local budgets.

He said: “These figures show that NHS Ayrshire and Arran is being forced to spend over £9 million to keep people in hospital when they are fit to go home.

“But due to the crisis in social care that this SNP Scottish Government is presiding over there far too often is not the resources to ensure a support package in place. With cuts to the three Ayrshire local authority budgets as a result of the SNP/ Green deal this situation will continue to get worse before it gets better.”

Director of East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership Eddie Fraser said:

“During 2018 there have been a number of challenges in the capacity of social care services that have seen people remain in hospital when they were medically fit for discharge.

“Working with the Health and Social Care Partnerships, we are enhancing services to support these transfers of care. In 2018, Ayrshire and Arran NHS Board agreed a £2.5m investment in new Intermediate Care and Rehabilitation Services which started at the end of November.

“Winter continues to be a challenging time for health and social care services. However, our staff are working hard to ensure people are discharged home appropriately.”

A spokesperson for the Scottish Government said: “We have been clear it is not acceptable for people to be delayed in hospital after treatment is completed.”

“Our integration of health and social care, along with the investment of nearly half a billion pounds this year, rising to more than £700m next year, will bring about longer-term sustainable improvement.

“The Health Secretary has set out that she wants to see the pace of progress on integration accelerated, and we will continue to work closely with those partnerships facing the most significant challenges, so we see the steps that have been proven to work in better performing partnerships put in place in every part of Scotland.”