Written question WQ93642

The Pathways of Care Delays (PoCD) framework has been in operation since April 2023. Monthly delays data are published at Pathway of Care Delays by reason for delay and date (gov.wales) under an extensive set of reason codes, broken down to health board and local authority level, providing a clear oversight of the position across Wales.

This is a vital tool for health and social care, providing a comprehensive and consistent dataset about regional discharge delays, enabling relevant interventions and actions to be targeted more appropriately.

The most recently published data (June 2024) reports 1,652 total discharge delays. Overall, delay numbers have remained fairly static over recent months.

From the monthly reports, the highest delays relate to assessment-related delays – both social care and healthcare-led. There has been an overall reduction in these assessment-related delays from June 2023 (716) to June 2024 (676), particularly for waits relating to the allocation of a social worker (from 162 to 104) and nursing/medical-related delays (220 to 159).

We are addressing assessment-related delays through the increased uptake of trusted assessor roles within hospitals and we are now taking forward work with stakeholders in the care home and home care sectors to support improvements in these areas.

While we have seen areas of improvements across regions and across certain delay reason codes, there is still more that needs to be done. Hospital discharge delays are also a key focus for winter preparedness.