The Scottish Government’s catastrophic failure to end delayed discharge has put lives in danger and cost NHS Dumfries and Galloway a whopping £42,303,640 since 2015.

In 2015, then Health Secretary and now deputy First Minister Shona Robison, promised to eradicate delayed discharge – but since then a staggering 155,156 days have been lost in Dumfries and Galloway.

These figures were compiled by Scottish Labour.

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.

Medical professionals and the BMA have repeatedly said that the crisis in our NHS will not be ended without tackling delayed discharge.

With delayed discharge persisting and continuing to cost the taxpayer and put strain on local services, South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth has demanded action to tackle the issue once and for all.

Colin Smyth said: “It’s been almost a decade since the SNP promised to end delayed discharge – but our region is still paying the price for their failure.

“Make no mistake – this is a disaster over a decade in the making, with successive Health Secretaries – including Humza Yousaf – completely unable to tackle delayed discharge.

“I have repeatedly raised this issue since I was elected but the situation is getting worse and worse.

“Medical professionals are clear that the failure to tackle delayed discharge is crippling our NHS and putting lives at risk.

“Services in Dumfries and Galloway are at breaking point but a staggering £42,303,640 has gone down the drain because of the SNP’s incompetence.

“We cannot have patients left in hospital unnecessarily and the public purse drained due to poor provision of care for those leaving hospital.

“We need long term investment, including tackling low level of sheltered housing and loss of care homes locally, but the Government could start by backing Labour’s plans to pay care workers a fair wage moving towards £15 per hour as quickly as possible, which would help with the recruitment crisis.”