Hospital discharges 'put strain on social care'

An increasing number of patients have been discharged from hospital despite still needing care, a report has found.

The further care of the patients, who are brought into the social care system, has put North Yorkshire Council under "significant financial pressure".

An overspend of £7.7m is now forecast in the council's health and adult services department, members of the audit commission heard.

This is up from a £3.8m overspend predicted earlier this year.

Richard Webb, corporate director for health and adult services, said his department's financial position remained "precarious" despite ongoing work to cut costs.

"Adult social care continues to face significant financial pressures largely due to increasing activity, particularly with regard to continuing high levels of hospital discharges and community case work," he said.

"One of the legacies of the pandemic is the continued pressure in social care as a result of increased hospital discharges.

"These are much higher than pre-pandemic levels and continue to increase."

In quarter two, a daily average of 15.4 people were discharged from hospital, compared to 14.1people this time last year.

The report revealed the county was benefiting from a national upturn in staff recruitment in social care but its biggest challenge was staff absence due to illness.

According to the 2023/34 report, the number of days lost due to sickness per full-time staff member was 13.56, which was above the target of eight days.

The previous year, the figure was 11.5 days.

"The main reason for absence continues to be stress, depression and anxiety which has been consistent across the year, accounting for just over a quarter of all absences, followed by musculoskeletal problems," Mr Webb said.

The council is developing a new attendance management policy which council chiefs hope will "bring together a more focused and consistent management of absence across the new council".

New wellbeing passports will be issued in a bid to support staff back to work earlier.

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