NHS to send 3,000 patients stuck in hospital to care homes within a week

THE NHS will send 3,000 hospital patients to care homes within a week as the Government spends £200million on beds to ease the winter A&E crisis.

Stephen Barclay, the Health Secretary, will unveil plans today to discharge within days a quarter of the 13,000 medically fit patients who are stuck on wards but do not need to be in hospital. Thousands more will be transferred to care homes within weeks to free up hospital beds for patients from A&E wards, reducing pressure on emergency departments and speeding up ambulance handovers.

More than 40 per cent of ambulance crews were forced to wait at least half an hour to hand over patients in the week up to Jan 1, the highest level since records began a decade ago.

The extra £200million – on top of £500million already earmarked to tackle bed blockers – will allow trusts to buy beds in bulk for up to four weeks for each patient until the end of March.

Mr Barclay will also announce a further £50million to increase the number of hospital discharge lounges where patients are sent when they do not need a bed but are waiting for transport or prescriptions and to expand ambulance hubs to speed up turnaround times.

“The NHS is under enormous pressure from Covid and flu, and on top of tackling the backlog caused by the pandemic, Strep A and upcoming strikes, this winter poses an extreme challenge,” he said. “I am taking urgent action to reduce pressure on the health service, including investing an additional £200million to enable the NHS to immediately buy up beds in the community to safely discharge thousands from hospital and free up capacity.” The

announcement comes as the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) hailed a “chink of optimism” in avoiding further national strikes after Rishi Sunak offered to discuss “reasonable” but “affordable” pay deals with the union.

Pat Cullen, the general secretary of the RCN, welcomed a “little shift” in the Prime Minister’s stance after he refused to rule out talks about the current 202223 pay deal.

Mr Sunak admitted the NHS was under “enormous pressure” but said he was confident it would “practically eliminate” waits of more than a year by next spring and waits of 18 months “within months”.

However, he refused three times to say whether he used private healthcare, when questioned by the BBC, insisting it was “not really relevant”.

Health officials estimated 3,000 patients could be sent to care homes within a week but said the total number transferred by the end of March would depend on clinical judgements by local NHS trust staff wary of being pressured to discharge before patients were fit enough. GPS and community services will be provided to the patients in the care homes to help them return home as soon as possible.

Mr Barclay will also announce pilot schemes to free up hospital beds, including dementia hubs where patients are discharged to specialist care settings and are supervised to reduce risk of being readmitted.

The schemes will include specialist rehabilitation units in the community to aid patients’ recovery after discharge and the development of new IT systems to improve communication between hospitals and community groups.

Mr Sunak also wants to increase the number of beds by 7,000, through a mix of hospital and virtual wards, where people suffering acute respiratory infections, for example, can be monitored at home rather than in wards.

The NHS is aiming to set up 40 to 50 virtual beds per 100,000 of the population by 2024.