Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the effects of delayed transfer of care to avoid bed shortages at hospitals in winter 2017.

The National Health Service has comprehensive plans for winter, with preparations starting earlier than ever before. This included a thorough assessment by NHS England of winter readiness of each system across the country. This Government has provided an additional £2 billion of funding over three years (£1 billion in 2017/18) to be spent on meeting adult social care needs generally; stabilising the social care market; and reducing pressure on the NHS, including delayed transfers of care. This, alongside an extra £100 million for accident and emergency departments this year will support the safe and timely flow of patients through hospitals this winter.

NHS England publishes monthly data on the number of delayed transfers of care. The latest data is for August 2017 and is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/delayed-transfers-of-care/