Question reference: S4W-30428
- Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
- Date lodged: 8 March 2016
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Current status: Answered by Shona Robison on 22 March 2016
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on recent reports that seven-day hospital emergency readmissions have increased significantly in recent years.
Answer
The research literature shows that the concept and definition of emergency readmissions is complex in nature. The Scottish Government is taking forward work on the definition and analysis of emergency readmission rates through the unscheduled care six essentials programme. This will support NHS boards in their effective admission and discharge of patients. As well as looking at the utility of the various definitions, the work includes consideration of the importance of analysis by age and speciality when considering trends. Since 2010-11 there has been an increase of around 0.1 percentage points per annum in the percentage of admissions which were followed by an emergency readmission for all ages combined.