Ruth Edwards MP addressed Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay in the Commons.
On 9 January the government announced that thousands of extra medically fit patients will be discharged from hospitals into community care settings, such as care homes, over the coming weeks to free up hospital beds and reduce pressure on the NHS, the Health and Social Care Secretary, Steve Barclay, is set to announce today (Monday 9 January 2023).
The government will make available up to £200 million of additional funding to immediately buy short-term care placements to allow people to be discharged safely from hospitals into the community where they will receive the care they need to recover before returning to their homes.
The move will free up hospital beds so people can be admitted more quickly from A&E to wards, reducing pressure on emergency departments and speeding up ambulance handovers. There are currently around 13,000 people occupying hospital beds in England who are fit to be discharged.
Ms Edwards asked when Nottingham University Hospitals Trust would be receiving their share of the funding following the announcement – she said that NUH had declared a Critical Incident between 29 December and 6 January, and that ‘they [ NUH ] need this new funding to help discharge more patients now’ – and requested an answer as to when this will happen.
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