Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 20
20
Accepted
Delayed hospital discharges attributable to four categories, including hospital processes and social care.
Conclusion
NHS England told us that the reasons why patients might experience delays in leaving hospital could be divided into four categories. For one group of patients, accounting for around 20%, the delays are related directly to activity in the discharging hospital.51 NHS England told us it was largely the responsibility of the leadership within these hospitals to improve their processes, so patients are better supported to leave when they are ready.52 Between 25% and 30% of patients leaving hospital need short-term packages of care, which are a shared responsibility between the NHS and local government. A further 25% of patients need to go into NHS community settings, which is another part of the NHS.53 The smallest group, by number, are patients needing nursing or residential care, but we were told that these people can wait the longest, sometimes up to four or five weeks from when they are ready to leave hospital.54 42 Q 125 43 Q 88–90 44 Qq 46–48 45 Q 87, 89 46 Q 111 47 Qq 45, 111, AUEC0001 48 Q 63, AUEC0003, AUEC0005 49 Q 37; C&AG’s report, para 1.13 50 Qq 2, 38 51 Qq 44, 98 52 Q 99 53 Qq 102–104 54 Q 105; AUEC0006 Access to urgent and emergency care 13
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the committee's finding and states the recommendation is implemented, citing an additional £1.6 billion investment and a comprehensive programme of measures from the Urgent and Emergency Care recovery plan to tackle delayed discharges, improve processes, and increase social care capacity.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 4.2 The Department of Health and Social Care is investing an additional £1.6 billion over 2023-24 and 2024-25, on top of the extra £500 million invested in 2022-23, to enable the NHS and local authorities to commission a greater range of services for people who need short-term packages of care and support for rehabilitation, reablement and recovery and to prevent avoidable delays to hospital discharge. 4.3 The Urgent and Emergency Care recovery plan, published in January 2023, sets out a wide programme of measures to tackle delayed discharges from hospital and community settings and improve outcomes for patients. In addition to increased discharge funding, this includes action to improve discharge processes; introduce care transfer hubs in all areas of the country to streamline and improve management of discharges for patients with more complex health and/or social care needs; improve models of rehabilitation and reablement; increase adult social care capacity; provide a more integrated approach to supporting improvements in discharge across health and social care; and improve the use of data and metrics to drive improvements in discharge.