EAST Ayrshire’s long-running record of having no delayed discharges lasting more than 14 days has come to an end, health chiefs have revealed.
Over the last five years, East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) has recorded just one case of a patient who was forced to stay in hospital for more than two weeks despite being deemed fit enough to leave.
While that case in October 2024 was an anomaly, the outgoing chief of the HSCP, Craig McArthur, warned that they had seen another delayed discharge this month.
He also indicated that this was unlikely to be a one-off, with pressures on resources and a move to narrow eligibility for social care support to those patients who had the greatest need.
Speaking at a meeting of NHS Ayrshire and Arran’s board, he said the partnership had been unable to maintain a performance record it had defended for “a long, long time”.
The disclosure came as board members discussed growing delayed discharge pressures across Ayrshire and increasing challenges within social care services.
Mr McArthur said while the latest report showed East Ayrshire had again recorded no standard delayed discharges lasting more than 14 days, this would change in future reports.
He said: “The next report will show that we have had a delay over 14 days. So we’ve been defending for a long, long time but sadly that’s no longer the case.
“What we’ll see is the ability to retain that level of performance will be impacted going forward, in addition to funding.”
The comments came as NHS Ayrshire and Arran reported a worsening picture for delayed discharge across all three Ayrshire health and social care partnerships, although East Ayrshire remains well behind its neighbours in North and South Ayrshire.
A board performance report showed total delayed discharges across Ayrshire increased from 202 at the end of December to 258 by March 2026. North Ayrshire recorded 112 delays, South Ayrshire 97 and East Ayrshire 49.
Occupied bed days linked to delayed discharge also rose across all three partnerships, increasing to 7,899 in March after falling to 6,624 in December.
The report noted that East Ayrshire had recorded no non-complex delays lasting more than two weeks, compared to 53 in South Ayrshire and 46 in North Ayrshire.
During the discussion, officials identified delayed discharge, social care capacity and financial pressures as among the biggest challenges facing services.
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