NHS to “Buy Beds in Care Homes” To Accelerate Hospital Discharge

Thousands of extra medically fit patients will be discharged from hospitals into community care settings such as care homes over the coming weeks to free up hospital beds and reduce pressure on the NHS the Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay has announced

The government will make available up to £200 million of additional funding to immediately buy short-term care placements to allow people to be discharged safely from hospitals into the community where they will receive the care they need to recover before returning to their homes

The move will free up hospital beds so people can be admitted more quickly from A&E to wards reducing pressure on emergency departments and speeding up ambulance handovers There are currently around 13 000 people occupying hospital beds in England who are fit to be discharged

The additional £200 million - on top of the £500 million Adult Social Care Discharge Fund already announced which reached the frontline in December and is already helping discharge people more quickly - will fund maximum stays of up to 4 weeks per patient until the end of March Integrated care boards - organisations that arrange health services in each local area - will begin booking beds that are most appropriate to patients’ needs

Discharge Hubs To Free Up Beds

The government is immediately making available additional £50 million in capital funding to expand hospital discharge lounges and ambulance hubs Ambulance queues in some areas are made worse due to a lack of physical space - the new money will create new ambulance hubs where vehicles can manoeuvre more easily to avoid delays hand- ing over patients The funding boost will also expand discharge lounges in NHS trusts - areas where patients can be moved out of acute beds while they wait to be discharged freeing up beds in the meantime

The Health and Social Care Secretary outlined a series of further measures to address current pressures facing the NHS over winter including long waits for emergency care and delays to discharging patients who are medically fit to leave hospital

These include 6 areas trialling innovative long-term solutions to free up hospital beds and make sure patients get the right care at the right time, which could be rolled out across the NHS if successful

URGENT ACTION TO REDUCE PRESSURE ON NHS

Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said: The NHS is under enormous pressure from COVID-19 and flu and on top of tackling the backlog caused by the pandemic strep A and upcoming strikes this winter poses an extreme challenge

I am taking urgent action to reduce pressure on the health service including investing an additional £200 million to enable the NHS to immediately buy up beds in the community to safely discharge thousands of patients from hospital and free up hospital capacity on top of the £500 million we ve already invested to tackle this issue

In addition, we are trialling 6 National Discharge Frontrunners - innovative, quick solutions which could reduce discharge delays, moving patients from hospital to home more quickly

These ideas include dedicated dementia hubs, new offers of provision for rehabilitative care and creating effective data tools to help manage demand for discharge of medically fit patients - giving them the help they need to live comfortably in the community after a hospi-

Tal Stay

The new measures follow the Prime Minister s speech on building a better future where he set out one of his key promises that NHS waiting lists will fall and people will get the care they need more quickly £14 1 BILLION INVESTMENT OVER NEXT 2 YEARS

Minister for Care Helen Whately said: Getting people out of hospital on time is more important than ever It’s good for patients and it helps hospitals make space for those who need urgent care

We’re launching 6 Discharge Frontrunners to lead the way with innovations to help get people out of hospital and back home

Winter is always hard for the NHS and social care and this year especially with flu in high circulation That’s why we provided the £500 million Adult Social Care Discharge Fund earlier in the winter

As well as helping people right now we re looking ahead to make our health and care system work better next winter and beyond These problems are not new but now is the time to fix them for the future

People eligible for a COVID-19 booster and flu vaccine are advised to take up the offer as soon as possible to protect themselves and others and reduce pressure on the NHS

In total up to £14 1 billion additional funding will be invested by government over the next 2 years to improve urgent and emergency care and tackle the backlog - the highest spend on health and care in any government’s history £7 5 billion of this support is for adult social care and discharge over the next 2 years which will also help deal with immediate pressures

The government is also continuing to grow the NHS workforce with around 42 000 more staff than a year ago including over 10 500 more nurses and almost 4 700 more doctors