OCCASIONAL reductions during 2014/15 in the numbers of patients in Gwent whose discharge from hospital was classed as delayed, could not be sustained, new figures reveal.

Difficulties in securing the timely discharge of patients deemed fit to go home or into a care home meant that monthly reductions in blocked hospital beds last year were usually followed by an increase.

At no stage in the year to March did the number of delayed transfers of care (DToCs) fall for two months running - and in seven of those 12 months the figure topped 100 patients.

The latest DToCs figures, published by the Welsh Government, show that during March this year, 109 patients were deemed to be blocking hospital beds in Gwent, one less than in March 2014.

Between times, the monthly figure fell as low as 65 (last May) and 66 (last December), but has also risen to 121 (last June) and 115 (February this year).

The average number of patients in Gwent encountering delays in their discharge from hospital fell during 2014/15 compared to the previous year, but remained well above the figures for the previous three years.

More than half (57) of the 109 patients identified as DToCs in Gwent during March had been delayed for NHS reasons.

Thirty-nine were down to post-hospital healthcare arrangements not having been put in place, and 18 were due to delays in assessments to determine what those arrangements ought to be, the overall figure reflecting the extremely busy winter period in hospitals - not only in Gwent but the rest of Wales - which stretched staff resources to the limit.

Twenty-one discharge delays were down to issues with the selection of a care home, and 11 were due to patients waiting for a place to become available at the care home of their choice.

Despite the numbers of DToCs remaining high, the average length of delay per patient last year fell slightly, and there was a notable reduction in the number of bed days lost per month due to discharge delays.

Just one patient in Gwent was delayed by more than 26 weeks last year - in March alone there were 18 across the rest of Wales in that category - and the majority of patients in Gwent hospitals were delayed for less than three weeks.