NHS to buy care beds to make space in hospitals

The NHS will seek to discharge patients who are medically fit to leave hospital in the coming weeks

Thousands of NHS patients in England will be moved into care homes as part of the government's plan to ease unprecedented pressure on hospitals.

The NHS is being given £250m to buy thousands of beds in care homes and upgrade hospitals amid a winter crisis.

It is hoped the move will free up 2,500 hospital beds so patients can be admitted more quickly from A&E.

Labour's shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said the announcement was "another sticking plaster".

The plans are part of an emergency package unveiled by Health Secretary Steve Barclay.

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There are currently about 13,000 medically fit patients occupying beds in England.

In the coming weeks, some of those patients will be discharged from hospitals into the community, where they will receive care as they recover.

"Getting people out of hospital on time is more important than ever," said Helen Whately, minister for care. "It's good for patients and it helps hospitals make space for those who need urgent care."

The package, announced on Monday, will include trials of other ideas to free up hospital beds in six areas of England.

The government said these ideas, which include dedicated dementia hubs and new options for rehabilitative care, could be rolled out across the NHS if successful.

But questions are also being asked about why it has taken so long to release £500m of winter funding that was announced in September - the primary aim of which was to tackle delayed discharges.

The latest money is on top of that, but the NHS is still waiting for £300m of the original £500m pot.

The first tranche finally arrived in early December, with the remainder due by the end of this month, the government says.

But if it had been given earlier, many in the NHS believe they would have had a better chance of managing some of the problems.

'Failure to fix social care to blame'

Responding to the announcement, Mr Streeting said the government's "failure to fix social care means thousands of patients who are medically fit to be discharged remain stranded".

"It is worse for patients and more expensive for the taxpayer," he said.

Of the new funding, £200m will go towards buying up extra care home beds, with £50m of capital funding to upgrade hospitals. Those plans will aim to deal with ambulance queues by creating areas for vehicles to manoeuvre, and also funding discharge areas in hospitals so patients can be moved out of acute beds.

The package comes at a time when a spike in Covid and flu infections is putting severe pressure on the NHS, on top of a backlog caused by the pandemic.

A&E waits and ambulance delays are at their worst levels on record.

In a speech last week, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said bringing down NHS waiting lists was one of his top priorities this year.

Mr Sunak and Mr Barclay hosted health leaders in Downing Street for emergency talks on Saturday, as A&E units struggle to keep up with demand, and trusts and ambulance services declare critical incidents.