Freedom of Information Request: 0173 2019/20

• Baseline number of super stranded patients (number of patients in hospital for more than 21 days) per month or for the most recent month

The baseline identified by NHS Improvement for University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust is 545 patients with a length of stay of 21 days or more. This is the average daily number of patients with a length of stay of 21 days or more, that were inpatients at our hospitals, during March 2018.

• Target number required to be hit, as set by NHSI. NHSI set a target last year, for all trusts to reduce the number of super stranded patients by 25%, and this year this target has gone up to 40%. Data on what your trust target is and if you have hit or missed this target.

It is generally well recognised that a number of patients are disadvantaged by spending too long in hospital. We continue to work on reducing long lengths of stay within our hospital sites, where this can be done safely and to the benefit of our patients. The Trust has introduced or adopted a number of initiatives, such as Red 2 Green (https://improvement.nhs.uk/improvement-offers/red2green-campaign/) across a number of inpatient wards, in order to ensure that patient care is optimised and takes place in the right setting. We continue to work towards the aspiration set by NHS Improvement.

The Trust treats a number of cohorts of patients that are ‘expected’ to stay in hospital for significant periods of time. For example, this includes the most complex injuries resulting from trauma and for complex transplantation patients where a length of stay of 21 days or more is not unusual. A long length of stay does not in itself constitute a delay to either the care plan or to discharge.