Reducing number of county’s active recovery beds will ease ‘huge amount of pressure’ on the NHS

Council officials are considering reducing the number of active recovery beds in Lincolnshire to ‘align’ with the current levels of demand.

The number of active recovery beds (ARBs) has been proposed to be reduced from the current 29 to 24 beds next year.

ARBs are a pathway for patients who are ready to be discharged from hospital but are not ready to return home.

Council officials have said this will provide better value for money and ensure that the county council doesn’t recommission more ARBs than are needed.

Members of Lincolnshire County Council’s adult social care and public health scrutiny committee considered the plans at a meeting on Wednesday, October 22.

The county council said it’s working with Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) to continue the ARB service after the current contract expires.

Carl Miller, strategic commercial and procurement manager at the county council, said: “The current contracts have been in place since July 2023 and will expire on the March 31 next year with no options to extend further.

“The recommendations of the report will enable continuity of support with effect from the April 1 next year.

“Bed numbers have been reduced through the term of the current contract to align with presenting demand.

“That flexibility around increasing or decreasing bed numbers is written into the contracts to ensure that the numbers of beds required to deliver the service matches the presenting need.”

Under the plans, the ARB service would be recommissioned at three locations across Lincolnshire for an initial period of a year - with the option to extend for up to two years after that.

This would cost a ‘whole life’ value of £4,949,901.60 and would be jointly funded by the county council and the Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board.

Mr Miller added the move would ensure that the average number of beds occupied would be at more than 90% rather than the current 70%.

He said the plans would ensure the number of beds was ‘in line with presenting demand’.

Coun Christopher Reeve (Reform UK) questioned the proposal to reduce the number of ARBs and asked why there wasn’t a need for more with current NHS pressures nationally.

He said: “I was quite surprised to hear that at the current rate, you’ve only got 70% occupancy. By dropping the number of beds to 24, you’re going to have a 90% occupancy.

“How does that tie in with current bed blocking situations in the NHS because I was under the impression that there was a lot more bed blocking going on than can be supplied by 24 beds.

“Is there a disparity between the actual need and the utilisation of what’s available?”

Mr Miller said: “These beds have a very specific focus in terms of eligibility and the criteria for somebody to be referred into an active recovery bed really relies on the identification from health and care professionals of an ability to benefit from a period of intensive reablement to enable them to return to living at home as independently as possible.

“That doesn’t apply to everybody who is moving through the hospital system and are ready for discharge.”

He added that there are ‘other services’ available to support people who don’t meet this criteria.

Martin Samuels, executive director of adult care and community wellbeing at the county council, told the committee that there are currently enough care homes to meet the demand of the elderly population in Lincolnshire.

He added: “Lincolnshire has a significant amount of older people to enter residential capacity available.

“So we have no difficulty placing people. People aren’t delayed from hospital because we can’t place them in a care home. That isn’t an issue for Lincolnshire.

“Occasionally there may be some delays because it’s more difficult to put together home care packages but it wouldn’t be appropriate for someone to be in an active recovery bed while they were waiting to go home for a home care package.

“Occasionally we have some delays there but where people are discharged from hospital, they’re fit for discharge but generally these are because of administrative issues in the hospital.”

Coun Karen Lee (Labour), said she supported the plans.

She said: “As somebody who, until last October, was a nurse for 25 years, I listen to everything you say and I just can’t praise this highly enough. It takes a huge amount of pressure off the NHS.”

Coun Lee added that she didn’t think the term ‘bedblocking’ should be used - and said that these are people who are just waiting for the ‘support to go home’.

Councillors are due to make a final decision on the plans at an executive meeting on November 4.