The number of patients in England who were medically fit to leave hospital but unable to be safely discharged has reached a new high for the sixth month in a row, increasing pressure on the government to tackle the social care shortage.

NHS and council leaders, and the Care Quality Commission (CQC), have recently called for action to prop up social care, and the chancellor, Philip Hammond, has been urged to increase funding in the autumn statement on 23 November.

The issue of people being fit to leave hospital but not able to be discharged, sometimes called “bedblocking”, costs the NHS £800m a year and the latest official statistics starkly illustrate its impact on patients and hospitals before the start of winter, the service’s busiest time of the year.

There were 6,777 patients delayed from being transferred out of hospital on the last Thursday of September, up 29% on the equivalent figure a year ago.

The number of delayed days in September was 196,246, also the highest number since monthly data was first collected in August 2010, and up one-third on a year ago.

Richard Murray, the director of policy at the King’s Fund health charity, said: “The inexorable rise in the number of delayed discharges underlines the impact of cuts in social care on the NHS.

“Budget cuts and rising demand will leave adult social care facing a £1.9bn funding gap next year. The government must address this in the upcoming autumn statement.”

Tim Gardner, a senior policy fellow at the Health Foundation, concurred and warned tougher times were likely ahead in the winter. “The NHS is working hard to treat people as quickly as they expect and deserve, and most NHS providers continue to deliver good quality care,” he said.

“But cuts to social care are impacting on the NHS and we have called on [the] government to urgently boost funding in this area.”

Although the majority (57.8%) of delayed days were due to the NHS, the health service said some of this was explained by NHS community health services being unable in turn to discharge their patients to social care, preventing these services from accepting new discharges from hospitals.



The proportion of delays attributable to social care was 34.4% in September; the remainder were attributable to the NHS and social care, up from 30.8% a year ago.

Labour’s health spokesman, John Ashworth, called for urgent government action. “This situation is extremely distressing for older people stranded on hospital wards and is a direct result of Tory cuts to social care,” he said. “Failure to deal with the crisis facing our social care system is putting added pressure on our A&E departments.”

Last week, council leaders said services that supported elderly and disabled people were facing “an existential crisis”. The CQC warned last month that social care was approaching “a tipping point”, meaning fewer people would get the care they needed and the NHS would become busier, unless ministers provided solutions.



An NHS England spokesman said: “Patients who are well enough to leave hospital should be able to do so at the earliest opportunity. These figures underline the importance of joined-up care within the NHS, between healthcare providers, and the dependence of hospitals on well-functioning social care services.”

The latest monthly performance statistics showed the NHS continuing to miss a number of targets. Hospital A&E departments admitted, transferred or discharged 86% of patients within four hours of arrival, below the 95% standard applicable to all A&E departments, which was last achieved in July 2013.

Hospitals treated 90.6% of patients on the referral-to-treatment waiting list within 18 weeks, the worst performance since September 2011 and below the 92% target. The proportion of cancer patients (81.4%) beginning a first definitive treatment within 62 days from an urgent GP referral for suspected cancer was also short of the target of 85%.

The 10 NHS regional ambulance services in England responded to 68.3% of the most urgent 999 calls for help, known as red 1 calls, within eight minutes, the 16th month in a row in which the standard of 75% has not been met.

For red 2 calls, which are also life-threatening, such as for a stroke, the 75% target has not been met since January 2014. In September, ambulances managed to reach 62% of such patients within eight minutes.

Matthew Swindells, NHS England’s national director of operations and information, said the service was performing well in the face of increasing demand.

“Services continue to be delivered at high levels, with A&E continuing to admit, treat or discharge nine out of 10 patients within four hours.”

