Current status: Answered by Neil Gray on 26 January 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what the average time was in 2024-25 for cancer patients to be discharged from hospital once home adaptations were identified as a requirement, set out as the (a) mean, (b) median and (c) mode figure, and what measures are in place to introduce a fast-track adaptation scheme specifically for palliative patients.
It is the statutory responsibility of the Health and Social Care Partnerships and NHS Health Boards to meet the need of any individual assessed as needing home adaptations and therefore, the Scottish Government do not hold this information. Information collected from Public Health Scotland does not include diagnostic related information on the patients experiencing a delay to their discharge, so it is not possible to specifically identify cancer patients experiencing a delay from the delayed discharges dataset.
With regards to introducing a fast-track adaptation scheme please note that as set out in our Housing to 2040 strategy, we are taking forward a review of the current housing adaptations system to consider how the process can be streamlined, made easier and quicker for people who need adaptations, including palliative patients.