Almost 3000 hospital beds in Fife were blocked this winter by patients well enough to go home, new statistics have revealed.
The figures came to light as the Liberal Democrats claimed the local health board was facing a £6.2 million shortfall because funding parity has not been achieved by ministers.
On a single day in December, 113 beds were blocked, including 32 at Dunfermline’s Queen Margaret, 27 at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy and 22 at Cameron Hospital near Windygates.
Cowdenbeath MSP Alex Rowley said: “I am of the view that there are more deep-rooted issues that must be addressed and that is why I have been pushing the Cabinet Secretary for Health to carry out a review of the health and social care needs in Fife and the resources that are required for both NHS Fife and the social care partnership to be able to meet those needs.
“Major assumptions were made by NHS bosses around the modelling of the Victoria Hospital and resource allocation for community care. This needs to be reviewed as those assumptions were, in my view, flawed and sit at the heart of the problems we have in Fife”.
An average of 1,216 beds per day were blocked in Scotland during the festive period, with a total of 2,983 blocked in Fife and 1,805 in Tayside.
Lib Dem MSP Alison McInnes said funding for six health boards, including Fife, had not been brought to within 1% of parity with the overall health budget, despite a Scottish Government promise to do so in January.
Dr Brian Montgomery, interim chief executive for NHS Fife, said the board and council have been “working constructively” to reduce the number of patients stuck in hospital when they are well enough to go home. He added: “While the challenge of delayed discharge should not be under-estimated and there is further work to be done, significant progress has been made and is a result of the commitment of staff and the high quality of partnership working.”
A Scottish Government spokesman added: “We have committed £100 million over three years in the NHS to help reduce the numbers of people waiting to be discharged from hospital.”