Why the NHS still wastes billions on patients who don't n...

What’s Happening

So get this: The delayed discharge challenge throws up deeper questions about the care system, co-ordination - and whether some patients are over-treated Why the NHS still wastes billions on patients who dont need to be in hospital 1 day ago Save Nick Triggle Health correspondent Save BBC As ambulances queued in front of Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading last week, corridors full of patients were waiting for a bed on a ward.

Emergency department consultant Omar Nafousi was at his wits end. “Weve no space,” he told the BBC last week. (we’re not making this up)

“This is not what I signed up for when I became a doctor.

The Details

” It is a scene that is being repeated in hospitals up and down the country as winter viruses and cold weather add to the pressures on the health service. Rn nearly 4,000 beds in England alone are taken up flu, Covid and the vomiting bug norovirus, according to NHS England, and the situation is on a similar grow in the rest of the UK.

But that is dwarfed – the patients who should not be in hospital. In Pictures via Omar Nafousi, an emergency department consultant told the BBC last week, Weve no space…

Why This Matters

This is not what I signed up for when I became a doctor Every day there are more than 13,000 people whose treatment has been completed who are still in hospitals in England, the latest figures from NHS England suggest. Plus there are a further 4,000 around the rest of the UK - which means around one in eight beds are occupied dont necessarily need to be there. Many of these “delayed discharge” patients are older and may be frail and living with multiple health conditions who need support in the community.

Health experts are weighing in on what this means for people.

The Bottom Line

The average hospital bed takes £562 a day to staff and maintain, according to NHS England, meaning the health service in England is losing more than £225m a month supporting patients who could be elsewhere. Then there is the cost to other patients.

How do you feel about this development?