Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what they estimate is the cost to the NHS of bed-blocking by patients who have received all their medical treatment; and what steps they are taking to reduce this.

The Department has made no formal estimate of the costs of delayed discharge to the National Health Service. It is recognised that such delayed discharges do use resource which could be deployed elsewhere, and all parts of the NHS and those with responsibility outside it, are continually looking for ways in which to reduce the number of delays.