RCEM describes record delayed discharges in Scotland ‘deeply concerning and distressing’

24 June 2025

The Holyrood government must prioritise record ‘delayed hospital discharges’ as a matter of urgency as the issue is causing the Urgent and Emergency Care system in Scotland to grind to a halt.

That’s the response from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine to new data published today (24 June 2025) by Public Health Scotland which has revealed there were 720,119 days spent in hospital by people who were well enough to go home during the year 2024/5.

That’s the highest annual figure reported since guidelines changed in 2016.

The issue, commonly referred to as ‘delayed discharges’, sees people stranded in ward beds who are well enough to leave but unable to often because the social care needed to support them is not available.

As a result, the whole flow of patients through the hospital grinds to a halt, meaning people can end up stranded in A&E, often waiting hours and even days for a ward bed to become available.

The publication, titled Delayed Discharges in NHS Scotland, also reveals:

On average, 1,973 hospital beds every day were occupied by people who were well enough to go home. That’s up 8% compared to 2023/24 (1,820) and equates to one in every nine in-patient bed being occupied by someone with no medical need to remain in hospital.

People spent an average of 10 days in hospital after they were deemed well enough to be discharged. This is the same compared to 2023/24 but an increase on 2019/20 when this figure was seven days.

Of the total number of delayed discharge bed days, 73% were due to health and social care and patient and family related reasons (522,599).

Of the 720,119 bed days occupied by people delayed in their discharge in 2024/25, there were 474,153 occupied by people aged 75 and over, accounting for 66% of the total delayed discharge bed days.

Dr Fiona Hunter, Vice President of RCEM Scotland said, “Today’s data shows the share scale of the issue at the ‘back door’ of our hospitals, which is deeply concerning and distressing for both patients, and the workforce.

“Delayed discharges are the key reason that patients get stuck in A&E, often on trolleys in corridors, waiting extreme hours for an in-patient bed to become available.

“And our members and their colleagues have no choice but to treat and provide the best possible care they are for them in these inappropriate spaces. Which has sadly become normalised.

“It’s not just dehumanising, and degrading – it’s dangerous. And as is yet again evidenced by today’s data, it is often our older patients who are bearing the brunt of the issues.

“Until this issue is resolved we will struggle to end the crisis in out EDs and these figures should sound alarm bells in Holyrood.

“We need a whole system approach to get the system moving as it should. Instead, patients at every point of journey through the hospital system and out are experiencing delays. Our patients deserve better. Our workforce deserves better.”