HC Deb 04 February 2004 vol 417 cc942-3W
Mrs. Iris Robinson

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many patients' hospital discharge was delayed while awaiting community care packages in each of the last six years. [150740]

Angela Smith

The number of delayed discharges recorded as a snapshot of the position at yearly intervals from October 2000 to October 2003 (the latest date for which such information is available), and for February 1999 and February 2000, is shown in the following table.

Number of delayed discharges
February 1999 249
February 2000 319
October 2000 327
October 2001 456
October 2002 392
October 2003 390

Note:

Information on numbers of delayed discharges has been collected in respect of the position at the last day of each month from August 2000, and previous to that date by annual census held in February.