FOI/202400396947 · FOI/EIR · unclear
Delayed Discharge figures: FOI release
Information requested
Please see the following FOI response from Scottish Government.
It states: “The figure of 1,700 referenced in that statement is derived from unpublished management information provided from local authorities, directly to Scottish Government each day, to aid monitoring of the interim operational situation. This is a different data source to the monthly National Statistics published by Public Health Scotland.”
Please provide all the unpublished management information from all the local authorities that provided this information on i) 8 Jan 2023 ii) 9 Jan 2023.
Please provide in excel format if possible for ease of analysis.
Response
The accompanying Excel file contains the information you have requested for 9 January 2023. However, as the daily Management Information (MI) was collected only on weekdays, no information was submitted by local authorities on 8 January 2023 which was a Sunday. We appreciate that this is not clear from the response to the FoI you have cited which states ‘each day’.
There are a number of things to bear in mind when considering this information:
The daily data collection of management information on delayed discharges was set up in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and formed part of a suite of indicators used to monitor pressures in the healthcare system. Daily data is subject to natural day to day fluctuations. These data are obtained from a different source to the monthly National Statistics published by Public Health Scotland, with this daily MI coming from local authorities. As data was intended for indicative purposes only, it is not subject to revisions or validations. The management information is not comparable to monthly National Statistics published by Public Health Scotland which are collected from NHS Boards and undergo thorough quality assurance checks before their release: Publications - Delayed discharges - Acute and emergency services - Our areas of work - Public Health Scotland.
About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.