A report by the Mental Welfare Commission is revealing the impact on patients of delayed discharge at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital’s Comiston ward.

The ward helps to rehabilitate older people with mental illnesses so they can return home or move to other suitable accommodation.

While care at the Comiston ward was described as “excellent” and patients’ families praised staff, the report noted there could be “long waits” for the social care support to be put in place for patients to return home, meaning patients well enough to leave hospital were unable to do so.

At the time of their inspection visit last October, the Commission found three of the ten patients on the ward were in this position.

One family said the delay for a social care package had “led to their relative losing the remaining skills they had to live independently”. Staff at the ward shared this concern, stating that for some older people treated on the ward, long waits for home care while their condition worsened meant a residential care home became “a more appropriate option” than returning to their home.

An Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership spokesperson said: “Within the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, we have established a multi-agency group which focuses on preventing delays through shared decision making. Work is also ongoing to increase the city’s care at home capacity by improving recruitment in this area, which should reduce delays even further and provide greater support to those who require care in the community.

“While we cannot be complacent about the scale and extent of the challenges we still face, we’re pleased that we are making progress. We are continuing to reduce the number of delays as well as the number of bed days lost and will keep reporting this progress to the joint board.”

In November 266 patients in NHS Lothian had their discharge held back because of delays in the care system, mostly down to waits for a place in a care home or for support to live at home.

Speaking to Holyrood’s Health and Sport Committee last week, Health Secretary Jeane Freeman insisted the number of delayed discharges can still be reduced after the most recent statistics showed a 4% increase across Scotland from the same period in 2017.

The Health Secretary went on to state she had “little patience” for large regional disparities in delayed discharge rates. She did, however, acknowledge Edinburgh faces a “particular challenge” as its strong economy and competitive local labour market make it harder to recruit carers.