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Almost 2,200 people in Scotland are delayed in being discharged from hospital for longer than the standard period of six weeks and 300 for over a year, due to lack of community care resources according to Scottish executive figures.

The figures were revealed as Malcolm Chisholm, minister for health and community care, announced a £20 million package to tackle delayed discharge. Chisholm accepted the statistics were unacceptably high, but said it was an international problem and added: "We are the first administration to count these people properly."

Of the total NHS capacity in Scotland, 10 per cent or 3,138 beds, are occupied by people waiting for community care services to secure their discharge. Delayed discharge is most acute in the NHS catchment areas of Edinburgh, Argyll and Clyde and Ayrshire and Arran.

The £20 million package will result in "hit squads" being brought in to ensure that each health and local authority partnership spends the ring-fenced money solely on the problem of delayed discharge. Chisholm said: "Action should not be motivated merely by beds, budgets and statistics, but by the need to provide person-centred solutions to the problem. This is not just an exercise in reducing numbers, it must be about improving lives."

Chisholm admitted that the £20 million package would not resolve the problem, but claimed it should free 1,000 places. A quarter of the funding will be released immediately, and local authorities in partnership with NHS boards are required to submit plans on service developments.

www.scotland.gov.uk