Data revealed in the 8th edition of the Barometer of Social Admissions (BIS) indicates that at that date, these cases represented 11.1% of all admissions to public hospitals, the so-called Inappropriate Admission Index, which represents an increase of 0.6 percentage points (pp), around 5.7%, compared to the data from the previous Barometer. Lisbon and Vale do Tejo and the North are the regions with the highest number of inappropriate admissions, representing 80% of the total of these admissions and 97% of the respective total number of days, reveals the barometer carried out by the Portuguese Association of Hospital Administrators (APAH), in partnership with the consultancy EY Portugal, and with the institutional support of the Portuguese Society of Internal Medicine and the Association of Social Service Professionals, which is presented today at the Northern Rehabilitation Centre, in Valadares. Inappropriate admission is considered to be every day that a patient spends in hospital after clinical discharge and there is no health reason to justify their remaining in a hospital environment. Inappropriate admissions to public hospitals have increased, as have the costs associated with these cases, which are explained by delays in admission to the National Network of Continuing Care (RNCCI) and to Residential Structures for the Elderly (ERPI). According to the data, on 20 March 2024, social admissions cost the State more than 68 million euros, 16 million more than in March 2023. "Extrapolating this scenario to the whole year, inappropriate social admissions have an estimated financial impact of more than 260 million euros", the authors of the barometer highlight in a statement. The average national delay per inappropriate admission was 175 days, 2% more, the study states, indicating that there were a total of 378,068 days of inappropriate admission (13% more), "a number that reflects the high impact of this phenomenon on the prolonged occupation of beds in a hospital environment and the long wait for responses for admission to RNCCI and ERPI". The lack of response from RNCCI is the main cause of the number of social admissions in all regions, with 74% of admissions in the Centre, followed by the Algarve (49%) and Alentejo (46%). The lack of response from ERPI has a greater impact in Lisbon and Vale do Tejo (68%), followed by the Centre (40%) and the Algarve (38%). "Half of the episodes and half of the days recorded of inappropriate admissions originate from the Internal Medicine service", says the BIS, highlighting that 76% of the episodes and 50% of the days of these admissions are over 65 years old. The president of APAH, Xavier Barreto, regrets in the statement that "the successive attempts to resolve" this problem have not had the desired effect, considering that what is "lacking, above all", is "a coordination of responses between the social and health sectors, which thinks and coordinates the responses as a whole". For Xavier Barreto, "it is important to discuss the path to follow" in the context of reinforcing back-up beds, in empowering families and society, "to deal with a population that is tending to be older and more dependent", pointing out that having "a significant part of the beds occupied" with these cases "seriously damages the activity of all hospitals". Miguel Amado, from EY Portugal and responsible for the study, argues, in turn, that it is necessary to "adopt a consistent and multifaceted approach", increasing the availability of places in homes, in the continuing care network and in other social responses, to guarantee "integrated and effective responses between the different sectors and entities, reducing the bureaucracy of administrative processes and investing in the support network for (informal) carers". "Across all these measures, it is urgent to adapt the legislation to the needs of the reality of an ageing population and that aim to protect it. In this matter, companies can be an integrated part of the solution", contributing with their knowledge and capacity to resolve and promote better solutions, he stressed. For the first time, this edition of the Barometer considers admissions to psychiatric hospitals in the results of the study, due to the recent reorganisation of the National Health Service and the generalisation of the organisation model in Local Health Units (ULS), these values having been worked on separately and disregarded from the final results in previous editions. This edition considers data from psychiatric hospitals from 2022 and 2023 for comparative purposes. Also Read: PGR criticises the closure of residences in educational centres (Portuguese version)