Gloucestershire Hospitals Achieve Lowest Recorded Level of Patients Awaiting Discharge

The number of patients occupying beds in Gloucestershire hospitals despite being ready for discharge has reached its lowest recorded point. This achievement follows “amazing” progress in freeing up hospital capacity. The Gloucestershire Hospital Foundation Trust has concentrated its efforts on individuals classified as having No Criteria to Reside (NCTR) – patients who remain in hospital after being medically cleared for discharge – with the aim of enhancing patient flow and reducing response times across its various services. In early September, the trust documented 107 patients with NCTR, a decrease from the average of 186 observed during the 2023/24 period. Mary Hutton, the chief executive of the care board, expressed a desire for this figure to be minimized. During the health overview and scrutiny committee meeting held at Shire Hall on 15 October, Cheltenham Borough Councillor Adrian Bamford described the statistics concerning “bed blocker” patients as “extremely promising,” as reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service. Mr. Bamford stated: “There is an average figure of 186 last year and we’ve got that to 107.” He continued, “If that is true, you are freeing up almost three wards there.” He also remarked, “107 is still bad but on the other hand that is a massive improvement. Has that been sustained?” Mary Hutton, who serves as the chief executive of NHS Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board, reiterated the board’s objective to reduce this figure to its lowest possible level. She further noted that the count of individuals hospitalized for over 21 days has decreased “very significantly.” Ms. Hutton commented: “We want to be the best we can possibly be, where we are at the moment is not that and we still have more work to do.” She added, “We have increased capacity and we have got a lot more to learn about the capacity we need to move people on.” Concluding, she said, “We want to get to the figures you’re talking about but we are not there consistently.” Al Sherward, the chief operating officer for Gloucestershire NHS Trust, stated: “We have made amazing progress.” He continued, “I’m still optimistic we can get to below 100 as we go into the new year, if all things are considered to be true.”