People face being kept in hospital longer than needed

People who are ready to be discharged from hospital risk end up staying longer than needed if vital additional funding is not confirmed this month.

In a letter to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and Chancellor, the NHS Confederation, NHS Providers and other national organisations call for additional funding for discharge to assess to be confirmed this month, or people who are ready to be discharged from hospital risk having to stay longer than needed, causing treatment delays for other patients.

Since April, people in hospital have benefited from an extra £600 million of funding that has enabled more investment in community services, which has led to more people being treated in or close to their homes.  The new approach - discharge to assess - guarantees four weeks of care support for each discharged person, funded centrally. People can leave hospital as soon as they are medically ready, freeing up vital capacity.

However, with the funding coming to an end in October, the organisations are urging Sajid Javid and Rishi Sunak to avoid a ‘cliff edge’ in care as these services will need to be stood down unless a decision is made to extend the funding.  

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: “This funding has been instrumental in moving patients out of hospital as quickly and safely as possible so that they can be cared for in or closer to their homes, and also so that more patients can benefit from beds that would otherwise be occupied.

“The interaction of health and care systems is complex and can be controversial, but this is an approach that has been proven to work. With the NHS facing a mammoth backlog of care and with the government committed to unveiling a comprehensive social reform package in the autumn, this is surely not the time to be cancelling an initiative at the boundary of health and care that has worked so well.”

Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said: “Everyone knows that discharge to assess funding has been vital in enabling more medically fit patients to be discharged quickly and safely from hospital into their own homes or more suitable community services. Failure to continue this will result in a cliff edge that is likely to lead to an increase in average length of stay in hospital, delayed discharges and avoidable readmissions – all of which are costly to the public purse and to individuals and their families. This is a decision the Chancellor has to make, or we risk leaving more patients stuck in hospital when they don’t need to be.”

Alongside the NHS Confederation and NHS Providers, the letter has been signed by Healthwatch England, the British Red Cross, the Local Government Association, and Age UK. The organisations are calling for the £600 million to be matched for the second half of the year, arguing that pulling the plug on the funding will have a knock-on effect on the NHS waiting list for elective care, with 5.3 million people already known to be waiting for treatment.