Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of seasonality patterns in the numbers of people leaving hospital on (a) discharge pathway 0 (b) discharge pathway 1 (c) discharge pathway 2 and (d) discharge pathway 3 in each of the last three years.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Hospital discharge and the numbers of people discharged on pathways 0-3 are monitored on a regular basis and figures are published monthly by NHS England via the Acute Discharge Situation Report. The reports are available at the following link:
Data from 2022/23 and 2023/24 shows a general increase in discharges over the two years, but the proportion of people being discharged to each pathway remain relatively stable between the summer period, from April to September, and winter periods, from October to March. Definitions for data collected on discharge pathways changed from 27 May 2024 onwards, and figures from before and after this date are therefore not directly comparable.
To support areas to achieve timely hospital discharge, this Government published a new policy framework in January 2025 for the £9 billion Better Care Fund, which provides the National Health Service and local authorities accountability for setting and achieving joint goals for reducing discharge delays, preventing avoidable emergency admissions and care home admission. Some challenged systems in need of additional support are also receiving a programme of improvement support.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 21 October 2025 to Question 905924 on Health Services: Rehabilitation, what the percentage numbers were for causes of delayed discharge for (a) Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and (b) Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust in each month of 2025.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There is no data on discharge delays relating to rehabilitation alone, but information on the reasons for delayed discharges are published monthly by NHS England and are available at the following link:
The tables attached show the proportion of delayed discharges where the primary reason for the delay was related to securing rehabilitation, reablement, or recovery services, for patients with a length of stay of 14 days or over, each month between January 2025 and September 2025 for the Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust. These delays were either linked to capacity constraints or occurred during the brokerage processes at the interface between the National Health Service, local authorities, social care and/or housing partners.
Please note that unlike the response to Question 905924, we have provided data for patients with length of stays of 14 days or more, as the seven day or more length of stay data is only available from the September 2025 publication.
To support trusts with reducing delayed discharges, the Government published a new policy framework in January 2025 for the £9 billion Better Care Fund, which provides the NHS and local authorities accountability for setting and achieving joint goals for reducing discharge delays and preventing avoidable emergency admissions and care home admission. Some challenged systems in need of additional support are also receiving a programme of improvement support.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of trends in the seasonality of demand patterns for community hospital beds for elderly people in the last three years.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our 10-Year Health Plan sets out our vision for a neighbourhood health service that will embody our new preventative principle that care should happen as locally as it can: digitally by default, in a patient’s home, if possible, in a neighbourhood health centre when needed, and only in a hospital if necessary.
We have not analysed trends in the seasonality of demand patterns for community hospital beds for elderly people in the last three years because we do not have sufficient data to enable us to make an accurate assessment.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to his Answer of 21 October 2025 to Question 905924, what the equivalent percentage numbers were for other causes of delayed discharge in (a) Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and (b) Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Information on the other causes of delayed discharge has been published by NHS England, and is available at the following link:
The following table shows the proportion of delayed discharges for patients with a length of stay of seven days or longer in September 2025, by primary reason for discharge delay, for the Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust:
| Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust |
Hospital Process | 24% | 7% |
Wellbeing Concerns | 5% | 7% |
Care Transfer Hub Process | 19% | 16% |
Interface Process | 40% | 43% |
Capacity | 13% | 26% |
Weekly average snapshot of the total number of people per day with a length of stay of seven or more days who no had criteria to reside but who weren’t discharged | 142 | 222 |
Note: proportions do not add up to 100% due to rounding.
To support trusts with reducing delayed discharges, the Government published a new policy framework in January 2025 for the £9 billion Better Care Fund, which provides the National Health Service and local authorities with accountability for setting and achieving joint goals for reducing discharge delays, preventing avoidable emergency admissions and care home admission. Some challenged systems in need of additional support are also receiving a programme of improvement support.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the average cost per night of care (a) in an acute hospital, (b) in a community hospital and (c) at home with visiting nursing support (i) for NHS England, (ii) in the Hampshire and Isle of Wight ICB area and (iii) in the Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust area.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England don’t routinely collect expenditure data against the categories requested but we do for the following categories in the table below.
For (a) and (b) rather than share data by acute or community ‘hospital’, we have broken this down by acute or community ‘trust’ for the national and integrated care board (ICB) level requests, except for Portsmouth Hospital University NHS Trust which is acute only.
We are not able to provide the costs of (c), at home with visiting nurse support as we don’t collect this level of cost information.
The costs we have provided are fully absorbed, i.e. they include not only the medical care of the patients but also all other costs incurred in the trusts. The costs are taken from the National Cost Collection for 2023/24, the latest year for which data is currently available. This is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/2023-24-national-cost-collection-data-publication/
To derive the average cost per bed day we have divided the total cost by the total length of stay for all Admitted Patient Care delivered in:
a. (i) – All acute NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts | Total Costs | Total length of stay for all Admitted Patient Care (days) | Average cost per day |
£45,409,702,984 | 52,414,320 | £866.36 | |
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a. (ii) – All acute trusts in the Hampshire and Isle of Wight ICB area | Total Cost | Total length of stay for all Admitted Patient Care (days) | Average cost per day |
£1,426,531,392 | 1,815,334 | £785.82 | |
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a. (iii) - Portsmouth Hospital University NHS Trust (to note - this is specifically this trust, not the Portsmouth 'area') | Total Cost | Total length of stay for all Admitted Patient Care (days) | Average cost per day |
£451,003,686 | 675,437 | £667.72 | |
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b. (i) – All community NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts | Total Cost | Total length of stay for all Admitted Patient Care (days) | Average cost per day |
£481,873,973 | 842,354 | £572.06 | |
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b. (ii) – All community NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts in the Hampshire and Isle of Wight ICB area (to note - Solent NHS Trust are the only community trust in this ICB) | Total Cost | Total length of stay for all Admitted Patient Care (days) | Average cost per day |
£21,140,773 | 36,855 | £573.62 |
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the trends of mental health disorders in children and young people in England compared to other comparator countries.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Whilst there has not been a formal assessment of the trends in children and young people’s mental health problems in England compared to other countries, work continues with partners across the United Kingdom and internationally on a range of issues relating to mental health, including mental health disorders in children and young people.
Through resources such as the Global Burden of Disease study, we closely monitor international policy developments in mental health to harness insights. For example, the six new 24/7 neighbourhood mental health centres being piloted across England are inspired by the community model of mental health care originally pioneered in Trieste, Italy.
Estimates of the rates and trends in the prevalence of adults’ and children and young people’s mental health problems are reported in the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey series and the Mental Health of Children and Young People Survey series.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of working with comparator countries to understand causal factors in trends of mental health disorders in children and young people.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Whilst there has not been a formal assessment of the trends in children and young people’s mental health problems in England compared to other countries, work continues with partners across the United Kingdom and internationally on a range of issues relating to mental health, including mental health disorders in children and young people.
Through resources such as the Global Burden of Disease study, we closely monitor international policy developments in mental health to harness insights. For example, the six new 24/7 neighbourhood mental health centres being piloted across England are inspired by the community model of mental health care originally pioneered in Trieste, Italy.
Estimates of the rates and trends in the prevalence of adults’ and children and young people’s mental health problems are reported in the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey series and the Mental Health of Children and Young People Survey series.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the trend of mental health disorders in children and young people in England in relation to the trend in poor mental health in adults.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Whilst there has not been a formal assessment of the trends in children and young people’s mental health problems in England compared to other countries, work continues with partners across the United Kingdom and internationally on a range of issues relating to mental health, including mental health disorders in children and young people.
Through resources such as the Global Burden of Disease study, we closely monitor international policy developments in mental health to harness insights. For example, the six new 24/7 neighbourhood mental health centres being piloted across England are inspired by the community model of mental health care originally pioneered in Trieste, Italy.
Estimates of the rates and trends in the prevalence of adults’ and children and young people’s mental health problems are reported in the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey series and the Mental Health of Children and Young People Survey series.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the provision of step-down care in East Hampshire constituency.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This Government is committed to tackling delayed discharges to free up hospital beds, ensure people do not spend longer than necessary in hospital and, where safe and supported to do so, can recover well at home. To support this, we have provided around £9billion through the Better Care Fund, including £179million in Hampshire.
In September, Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust reported step-down intermediate care capacity as the primary reason of delay for 6% of patients with delayed discharge and at least a 7-day length of stay. For Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust this was 13%, both lower than the England average of 14%.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the availability of pharmacy provision in the Hampshire and Isle of Wight area.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local authorities are required, by statute, to undertake a pharmaceutical needs assessment (PNA) every three years to assess whether their population is adequately served by local pharmacies and must keep these assessments under review. Integrated care boards (ICBs) give regard to the PNAs when reviewing applications from the new contractors. Contractors can also apply to open a new pharmacy to offer benefits to patients that were not foreseen by the PNA.
If there is a need for a new local pharmacy to open and no contractors apply to open a pharmacy and fill the gap, an ICB can commission a new pharmacy to open outside of the market entry processes and fund the contract from the ICB’s budgets. In some rural areas where a pharmacy may not be viable, local GP practices are permitted to dispense medicines to their patients. In addition, patients can choose to access medicines through any of the distance selling pharmacies that are required to deliver medicines they dispense free of charge and also provide other pharmaceutical services remotely.