People stuck in hospital spend close to 2,000 years waiting in 2022

As new statistics show that across Scotland in 2022 people spent just under 2,000 years waiting to be discharged, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader and health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has called on the SNP leadership contenders to scrap the National Care Service if elected as First Minister.  

In 2022 the number of days spent by people whose discharge was delayed was 653,092, which is the equivalent of 1,789 years.

In 2015, the SNP Government promised to “eradicate delayed discharges from the system” within a year.  

Mr Cole-Hamilton commented:

"These figures are astounding. The SNP and Greens have spent years pursuing a billion-pound bureaucracy which will only make things worse.  

“Sky-high numbers like these aggravate delays right across the NHS, leaving staff under immense pressure and patients in severe pain.  

“We can’t afford to wait years for the wrong solution in the shape of a centralised, ministerial takeover. From today, all three of the leadership candidates should commit to ditching the national care service entirely. It needs to be scrapped, not salvaged.

"Scottish Liberal Democrats would spend the money being devoted to this reckless centralisation on frontline services and staff who are firefighting on every shift. We would establish national standards and entitlements for users to drive up the quality of care.”