The Cost
"A Paralysed System?" - the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Spinal Cord Injury Inquiry report - agrees with Lord Carter’s findings that delayed discharges are ‘a major problem’ for the NHS.
Thousands of people across the UK remain in hospital simply because they have no-where else appropriate for them to go. Patients with spinal cord injuries face delays each and every week - costly delays for the NHS.
The report, which investigated the provision of local health services for people being discharged from NHS Spinal Cord Injuries Centres, highlighted the cost that delayed discharges were causing to the NHS.
In one Spinal Cord Injuries Centre the cost of the delay for a single, ventilated spinal cord injured patient was £224,576 – the equivalent cost of nine band 5 nurse salaries. Delays are normally caused by the lack of adequate housing, the process of applying for care or suitable care packages for spinal cord injured people once they are ready for discharge.
We experience this at Ethos and continue in our campaign to ensure patients can access appropriate accommodation at the point they are ready to leave the hospital. Our team support the patient in that journey from hospital to their new 'home' - where they become a client and friend living in one of our adapted bungalows in the heart of the market town of Oswestry, Shropshire.
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Up to 8,500 beds in acute trust being blocked everyday.
INTEGRATION
Ethos implements recommendations to improve the integration between community and hospital multidisciplinary teams, as well as improving the coordination of a person’s discharge from hospital.
RECOGNITION
Ethos recognises that if hospital care is avoided (for example, due to reduced re-admissions) or shortened, healthcare commissioners (clinical commissioning groups and NHS England) will make savings.
ENABLES SIGNIFICANT SAVINGS
Ethos enables Spinal Injury Units and the NHS to make efficiency savings from reduced lengths of stay because more beds will be made available. In addition, where re-admissions within 30 days are avoided, significant savings to hospitals are possible.
REDUCING ADMISSION
Ethos provides a suitable environment for people to begin the rehabilitation process and significant savings are possible by reducing avoidable admissions to inappropriate residential and nursing care beds and re-admission to hospital.
The Value of Prevention
An independent review has identified that delayed discharges are costing the NHS in England £900m a year, with up to 8,500 beds in acute trusts being blocked every day.
Do you have more questions about the social benefit?
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