Patients Delaying Discharge from Hospitals due to Lack of Suitable Care Arrangements at Home

Ms He Ting Ru asked the Minister for Health in each of the last three years (a) how many patients in restructured hospitals had to delay their discharge from hospital due to complications caused by lack of suitable care arrangements at home; and (b) what is the (i) mean (ii) median and (iii) 95th percentile of the duration of delay in discharge from hospital.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) does not track the number of delay discharges due to lack of suitable care arrangements at home. However, we do monitor the number of patients who are medically stable for discharge from public hospitals and yet have stayed for more than 21 days. Over the past three years, there is a daily average of 220 such patients in the public hospitals. These patients are typically awaiting finalisation of care arrangements, such as arrival and training of domestic helpers or admission to care facilities or services. To enable timely discharges, MOH has been expanding the Interim Caregiver Service, which provides time-limited personal care at home for such patients.