A new analysis by the King’s Fund showed that there were nearly 13,000 delayed discharges daily over the past year, up by 300 in comparison to the 2024/25 daily average.
This means that close to one in 10 of all hospital beds, at any given point in time, are being taken up by someone who was fit enough to be discharged.
The King’s Fund estimates the cost to the NHS to be £2.7 billion a year.
Sara Hazzard, CSP assistant director and co-chair of the Community Rehabilitation Alliance, called for immediate action.
She said:
We need to stop looking at delayed discharge as a performance metric and call it what it is: a scandal that has been devastating lives and creating huge costs for many years.
‘The King’s Fund analysis is clear-eyed on the consequences – both human and financial – and chimes with everything we have consistently spoken out about over the past decade or more.'
‘The appalling reality is that with each new report that comes out on this topic, only the numbers change. The situation on the ground remains largely the same, for all the good work done at a local level to find solutions that help people get out of hospital.'
Until government grabs hold of the issue and delivers substantial action on prevention, social care and access to rehab in the community, lives will continue to be needlessly ruined, and lost, while people wait to go home.
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