Figures released by Public Health Scotland on Tuesday show an improving picture in terms of delayed discharge Dumfries and Galloway but the numbers are still a concern, according to South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth.

When comparing November 2022 with November 2023, the figures in Dumfries and Galloway dropped by 10 per cent but are still are a massive 77 per cent higher than pre-pandemic (November 2019).

Delayed discharge is when a patient is medically cleared to go home but cannot leave hospital, often because a social care package is not in place or there is a lack of places in care homes or sheltered housing.

Across the region thousands of hours of assessed care is not being provided in homes because of a lack of carers.

Colin Smyth said: “While this month’s figures once again show a slight drop in numbers year on year, they still paint a bleak picture for our region.

“Before the pandemic, the Scottish Government had vowed to eradicate delayed discharge but instead of improvements, we are still seeing high numbers every month, piling pressure on our hospitals and threatening patients’ recovery.

“Our social care system is crying out for help – our amazing local NHS ais working as hard as they can to get people out of hospital, but they can’t work miracles.

“Patients and workers across our health and social care system are being failed and we urgently need to support social care services.

“We need long term investment, including tackling the woeful low level of sheltered housing locally and addressing the falling number of care homes, but the Government could start by moving towards Labour’s calls to pay care workers a fair wage of £15 which would help with the recruitment crisis we face.”