Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what extra assistance the Government plans to provide to NHS trusts in England that have hospital bed waiting times over double the national average.

The National Health Service is working with local authorities and partners to ensure that medically fit patients can be discharged home as soon as possible seven days a week. People who are clinically ready and no longer need to be in hospital are supported to return to a familiar environment where possible, until they are assessed for their long-term health and care needs.

We have established a national discharge taskforce and allocated approximately £3.3 billion to support safe and timely hospital discharge since March 2020. This includes an additional £478 million to continue hospital discharge programmes until March 2022. Systems are also making full use of non-acute beds in the local health and care system, including in hospices, community beds and the independent sector.