Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many medically fit patients in NHS acute wards are awaiting discharge; and what proportion of the total available beds this constitutes.

In the week ending 15 January, there was a daily average of 14,000 patients in hospital who were medically fit to be discharged. This accounts for 14% of the total beds available from the trusts who submitted discharge data.