Hospitals: Discharges
(asked on 14th March 2023) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much of the £250 million initiative to speed up hospital discharges announced on 9 January 2023 has been spent.
The £200 million discharge funding is specifically to fund short-term National Health Service step-down care packages. Integrated care boards (ICBs), working closely with local authorities, are using this to purchase places in care homes and other settings, such as hospices, as well as to help fund wrap-around primary and community health services to support patients’ recovery. The fund is held centrally by NHS England and allocated to ICBs on a Fair Shares basis. ICB allocations were published on 13 January and are available at the following link:
The £50 million in capital funding has been awarded to NHS trusts to provide expanded spaces that can handle larger volumes of patients, such as hospital discharge lounges and ambulance hubs. We will publish data on this after the pre-election period. We will make the hon. Member aware when this data is published.