AQW 50684/22-27

Mr Danny Donnelly
Alliance Party
East Antrim

Tabled Date: 02/09/2026
Answered On Date: 22/09/2026
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health to detail the number of patients who were medically fit for discharge but remained in hospital due to delays in accessing community or social care since the introduction of the release to rescue policy, broken down by Health and Social Care Trust.

Answer:

My Department does not currently hold this information in a format that would enable a breakdown to be provided as requested.

The implementation of Encompass has affected the availability of some operational management information, including data relating to patients who are medically fit for discharge but remain in hospital awaiting community or social care support. Work is ongoing to develop and validate reporting arrangements for these measures.

While Trusts continue to manage and review individual patients who are medically fit for discharge through local discharge management and patient flow processes, a validated regional dataset is not currently available to provide the information requested.