[EMBARGOED]: ‘Bed blocking’ has already cost NHS £165 million this winter as Davey calls on govt to finish social care review this year

EMBARGO: 22:30 Thursday 9th January

• This winter has already seen 417,220 bed days taken up by patients that were well enough to be discharged - costing the NHS £165 million or £4.8 million a day
• 12,271 of England’s 103,277 hospital beds have been taken up by people who are fit to be discharged everyday this winter - the equivalent of just under one in eight
• Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey has called on the government to complete its social care review by the end of the year to take pressure off hospitals

This winter has already seen 417,220 bed days taken up by patients that were fit enough to be discharged, the equivalent of one in 8.4, costing the NHS £165 million in just over a month research by the Liberal Democrats has revealed.

The analysis by the Party found that the equivalent of 417,220 of hospital beds every day have been lost this winter due to being occupied by patients that were fit enough to be discharged. On average it means 12,271 beds per day are lost, close to one in eight of all beds in England.

The King’s Fund has previously said that the cost of a night to care for someone when they could be discharged is £395 meaning that the 417,220 bed days lost due to ‘bed blocking’ this winter has resulted in a £165 million hit to the NHS already this winter.

Ed Davey has called on the government to conclude their social care review by the end of the year. Currently, the government says it will report back in 2028. The LibDem Leader said there “was no time to waste” in rescuing social care and without saving the sector the problem of ‘bed blocking’ in hospitals would only get worse, leading to patients suffering unnecessarily.

It comes as the Liberal Democrat Leader is expected to visit Cambridgeshire on Friday where 4,451 bed days were lost due to bed blocking this winter at a cost of over £1.7 million.

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

“These devastating delays mean that patients are facing deadly waits in A&E as no beds are available.

“Millions of these wasted bed days would not happen if social care was in place to get these patients out of hospitals and back into the community. 

"The new government has no time to waste in rescuing social care after years of Conservative neglect but their lack of urgency has been bitterly disappointing.

“The Prime Minister must grasp this now before it is too late and make sure that his social care review is completed by the end of the year. Thousands of patients on trolleys in hospital corridors cannot afford for the Government to kick the can down the road.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

Liberal Democrat analysis can be found here and NHS source data here. The winter period has been defined as from when the NHS first released its weekly sit rep report up to the latest available data. Period of the 25th November 2024 to the 29th December 2024.

The Kings Fund analysis of the cost of a night to care for someone when they could be discharged can be found here.

The NHS figure for the total number of beds can be found here.