A PATIENT has been forced to stay in a hospital bed for over three years because Hywel Dda health board can’t find a suitable alternative facility for them.

Welsh Cabinet health secretary Vaughan Gething admitted in a letter to Welsh Conservative AM Darren Millar that the patient with a “serious mental health condition” had been stuck in hospital for 1,138 days and was likely to have to stay there for another six months because there is no suitable facility to be able to care for them.

Mr Millar was looking into delayed transfers of care from Welsh hospitals, with the unnamed Hywel Dda patient experiencing the longest delayed transfer across Wales.

Hywel Dda has insisted it is working to cut delayed transfers of care and was working with local councils and charities to ensure better care is available in the community.

The 1,138-day delay for the Hywel Dda patient is almost twice as long as the next longest delayed transfer in Wales which was 589 days for a patient assessed as medically fit to be discharged in Abertawe Bro Morgannwg Health Board. Mr Millar said the delays showed that there were serious problems in links between health boards and care services.

He said: “These delays are truly scandalous and nothing short of inhumane. No patient should have to wait almost four years to be discharged from hospital."

Joe Teape, Hywel Dda Health Board’s director of operations, said: “We are unable to discuss individual patient cases, however we continue to work hard to reduce delayed transfers of care and have good relationships with our local authority and third sector partners in providing care in the community as and when appropriate.”

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