'Operation Re-set' launched in south east to clear bed blockers

Hospitals and councils in south-east England have been set a deadline to clear beds

Councils in south-east England have been told they need to help hospitals clear one in three beds to prepare for a peak in Omicron cases.

NHS England and NHS Improvement South East has launched "Operation Re-set" to discharge fit patients in acute hospitals by the end of the week.

It focuses on those medically fit to be released, also called bed blockers.

According to the latest official figures, 1,326 of these patients were still occupying beds as of 2 January.

Announcing Operation Re-set in a letter, seen by the BBC, NHS England South East set hospitals and councils a target of clearing 30% of these patients by the end of this week - and 50% by the end of January.

The organisations contacted are in Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

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The letter said a "truly multi agency, multi-professional approach" would be "critical to the success of our Re-set approach".

It added: "We recognise that this will required difficult decisions, but we need all leaders from across your systems to lean in to this challenge and take collective decisions based on the right thing to do both for those patients in need of urgent treatment, as well as those patients who have completed their treatment."

Karl Love, adult social care lead for the Isle of Wight Council, said: "We obviously want to get people out of hospital as quickly as we can and back to their own homes."

But describing the move as "just a political headline", he said: "It's all empty words from the government.

"We can't do more and we haven't got more money to do anything with."

Tim Gardener, from the Health Foundation charity, told the BBC he believed successive governments have failed to ensure a "sustainable, properly functioning system of social care" in England.

He added: "Even if the money turned up in two minutes - a big fat cheque from Rishi Sunak - you can't use that well if you don't have people to provide the care that is needed."