‘Need to bite the bullet’ on bed blockers

Discharge system ‘not fit for purpose’, numbers ‘underreported’

The number of hospital bed blockers is being significantly underreported and the discharge system is “not fit for purpose” a minister in the Department of Health has admitted.

Minister of state for mental health and older people Jim Daly, who has been tasked with drawing up a plan to tackle delayed discharges in already overcrowded hospitals, has hit out at the HSE, who he said has hampered the development of a consistent approach to the problem.