By STEWART PATERSON

Political Correspondent

Bed blocking is costing the NHS in Greater Glasgow more than £12m a year according to official figures.

In the last 12 months with available information ,between September 2016 and August 2017 there were almost 60,000 bed days occupied by a patient ready for discharge.

The NHS says it costs £214 a day to keep a patient in hospital when they are able to be moved meaning the cost to the health board is £12.37m.

Labour released Scottish figures from the Scottish Parliament which show the cost to the NHS nationally is more than £100m with more than half a million bed days occupied over the 12 month period.

Using the same information source HS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have lost 57,839 bed days and in hospital is the city alone 32,912 costing £7m.

The latest monthly figure for August was Glasgow hospitals was 2394,which is down from 3071 a year earlier.

More than one third of the figures include Code 9 cases where the reason for delay is outwith the hospital or social work control, including where the patient needs specialist care where no facility exists.

The Health Board said improvements have been made in recent years in reducing the numbers affected by delayed discharge.

Labour said the SNP promised to completely eradicate delayed discharge or bed blocking.

The party’s social care spokesman, Colin Smyth, said cuts to local authorities make it difficult for care home places and care at home packages to be in place to allow people to be discharged.

He said: “The SNP government cannot continue to slash the budgets of local services that people rely on and not expect it to have a knock on effect to our health service.

“Much of the delays in discharging patients are due to social care issues and delays in care assessments – the result of years of an SNP government slashing local authority budgets, with £1.5billion cut since 2011.”

Mr Smyth said the current system was unsustainable.

He added: “Labour would take a different path. We would end the cuts to our councils and deliver a National Guarantee for care workers.

A spokeswoman for the health board, said: “NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and our Health and Social Care Partnership colleagues have made significant improvements on delayed discharge numbers over the last few years.

“We aim to ensure that people are discharged from a clinical setting as soon as they are ready. However, if they are delayed, our staff strive to provide the highest standards of care while they remain in our care and in the most appropriate hospital setting.

“A number of patients whose discharge is delayed will have complex care needs and may be waiting for suitable care arrangements to be commissioned in community settings.”