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Scotland's councils and health boards have been set tougher targets on delayed discharges from hospital after meeting their goal to reduce them by 20 per cent in the past 12 months.

Ministers now want them to cut all delays of more than six weeks by 50 per cent over the next year and to eradicate them by April 2008.

From April 2005 to April 2006 there was a 21.7 per cent fall, from 636 to 498, in the number of patients whose transfer from hospital to local services was delayed by more than six weeks. Total delays also fell by 21.5 per cent.

The number of patients delayed a year or more rose from 17 to 19.

From www.scotland.gov.uk