Scandal as tens of thousands are forced into wrong hospital wards

Tens of thousands of patients were put up in the wrong hospital ward last year due to a chronic lack of space.

An investigation by The Sunday Post has revealed that patients are being shifted between hospital departments as there aren’t enough beds to accommodate them.

Across Scotland, NHS chiefs have admitted the practice of ‘boarding’ over 60,000 patients in the last 12 months despite it significantly increasing the risk of death.

Boarding is when wards are full and the patient is admitted to another department, which is often totally inappropriate to the patients’ medical condition. They remain in the care of their own doctors, who have to visit them wherever they are in the hospital.

Experts are horrified at the revelation as patients who are boarded are at higher risk of longer hospital stays, infection and are more likely to die.

Last night, critics said the situation could not be justified and showed the NHS was not coping. The Scottish Government has vowed to take “concerted action” to tackle the problem.

However, hospital bosses say they have no alternative because of “pressures” in the system.

Common examples are patients in for routine operations being put up in wards with people who have illnesses or patients put up overnight in wards which are only supposed to be for day cases.

A total of 14,561 individual patients were boarded in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde while Lanarkshire had 4,310. In NHS Ayrshire and Arran, there were 2,905 boarded patients over the last year. Highland had 1,683, Fife 1,392 and Forth Valley 1,194 while NHS Tayside had 269.

Three other boards gave their figures as ‘bed days’ meaning the number of individual overnight stays instead of the number of patients. Over the last 12 months NHS Lothian clocked up a total of 30,091 bed days while NHS Borders had 6,222 and Dumfries and Galloway had 2,716.

Last year, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh called for an end to boarding because “poorer outcomes including increased death rates, length of hospital stay and likelihood of readmission”.

Professor Derek Bell, President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, is clear the practice needs to end.

He said: “Regrettably, boarding of patients and capacity continues to be a problem in Scottish hospitals. While it has historically been seen as providing a solution to capacity issues, boarding has only provided a temporary measure which, in itself, exacerbated the pressures we experience in acute hospitals. Recognising the need to address this issue the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh convened a Consensus Conference on improving patient flow last year. The Scottish Government supported this event, has acknowledged the need to eliminate boarding and we are working collectively towards this goal.”

Dr Jean Turner, former chief executive of the Scotland Patients Association, described boarding as a “ridiculous” practice which is “getting to be unsafe”.

She said: “It puts patients at risk of cross infection and lack of continuity of care because a consultant’s ward round can be everywhere in the hospital.”

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Jackson Carlaw said the problem is only going to get worse.

He said: “Nobody can justify the thousands of cases set out here. This points to an NHS that is ill-equipped to come anywhere near coping with the number of patients it has to deal with.”

The Scottish Government told The Sunday Post that it takes the issue very seriously.

Their spokesperson said: “The NHS in Scotland is working to reduce the practice of boarding, but it should be noted that it represents a very small proportion of over one million in-patients. However, this is an issue we take very seriously and Scotland is the first country in the UK to take concerted action to address it.

“We’re supporting NHS boards to manage their capacity and ensure the majority of patients are admitted to the right beds at the right time with the right staff.”

Case Study: Treatment of Paul ‘shocking’

For disabled patient Paul Stewart the practice of boarding was so extreme he found himself in the wrong HOSPITAL.

Paul was taken in at the height of a beds crisis which meant he had to be shuffled miles away, rather than admitted to a ward in the hospital he had initially went to. Paul was kept in Paisley’s Royal Alexandra Hospital for eight weeks despite his treatment only being available at Glasgow’s Southern General. A bed shortage at the hospital meant he had to be taken by ambulance on the 16 mile round-trip between hospitals every time doctors wanted to perform vital tests.

And to make matters worse, the ward he was holed-up in at RAH was a ward packed with patients with diabetic problems at a time when he required the guidance of neurological experts.

Wife Wendy, 41, said: “The whole process was so difficult for both of us to be kept in not just the wrong ward but a completely different hospital is shocking. It’s ridiculous that patients are treated like this.”

Paul had complained to his GP about a number of symptoms that he claimed were affecting his balance and walking ability over the course of the last 12 months.

But in August the 42-year-old had to be rushed to hospital after falling down the stairs of his Renfrewshire home, landing on his head. He was taken to RAH, where he was diagnosed with concussion. But after taking what doctors described as “a funny turn” a day later, he was admitted and given the hospital’s only available bed.

Wendy said: “He was put in a ward with diabetics. He doesn’t even have diabetes. Most of the patients he shared the ward with were much older, none of them with any similar symptoms.

“The doctor that was regularly seeing Paul was acting on instruction from a doctor at the Southern General. That meant every time Paul needed a test he had to be sent to Glasgow.

“I asked why that was the case and was told they only had 18 neuro beds up there, so had to keep him in a completely different hospital.

“He was in hospital for 11 weeks in total and was taken to the Southern four or five times with the whole process slowed down by the fact he was being kept in a hospital nearly 10 miles away. This needs to be changed.”

Last night, a spokeswoman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “Unfortunately demand for the beds in the Regional Institute of Neurosciences at the Southern General for more acutely unwell patients at the time meant that admission to the unit for Mr Stewart was not possible.”