Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bethell on 15 June (HL4726), whether the COVID-19 Hospital Discharge Service Requirements authorised NHS Trusts to make incentive payments to care homes to admit patients discharged from acute hospitals, irrespective of whether they posed an infection risk to other residents in the care homes; and whether such payments are permissible.

It is our priority to ensure that everyone is discharged safely from hospital and to the most appropriate available place.

Funding announced alongside the COVID-19 Hospital Discharge Service Requirements was not conditional on care homes accepting discharged patients. Discharges from hospital are decided by local clinicians and only happen when doctors determine it is in an individual patient’s best interests.

This is an unprecedented global pandemic and at every stage we have been guided by the latest scientific advice. We keep our policies under continuous review, based on the emerging international and domestic evidence.