Details have been published of how the £500million Discharge Fund will be given to help free up hospital pressures and reduce strain on NHS
Patients will benefit from faster access to emergency treatment following an injection of £500 million to free up hospital beds through quicker discharge, which will also help reduce ambulance handover times.
£300 million will be given to Integrated Care Boards to improve bed capacity and £200 million for local authorities to bolster the social care workforce, increasing capacity to take on more patients from hospitals.
Local authorities and Integrated Care Boards - organisations that bring the NHS together locally to improve health in the community - will work together to agree on spending across their regions, introducing tailored solutions which speed up discharge and benefit patients in their area.
Allocations will be published in due course with payments to be made in the coming weeks, following the announcement of the fund earlier this year. A second tranche of funding will be distributed in January 2023 delivering support across winter.
Speaking at the NHS Providers’ annual conference in Liverpool the Health and Social Care Secretary said:
Local areas will be free to spend this money on initiatives which will have the greatest impact in their area on reducing discharges into social care, which in most areas will mean prioritising home care. Funding may also be used to boost adult social care workforce capacity, through staff recruitment and retention, where that will help reduce delayed discharges.
Addressing the workforce for the first time since returning to the role, the Health and Social Care Secretary set out his priorities today (Wednesday 16 November) for the coming months to ensure the health and care system continues to deliver for patients.
Key areas of focus for the months ahead will be:
Minister of State for Care Helen Whately said:
On tackling the Covid backlogs, the Health and Social Care Secretary emphasised the importance of close working between the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England to reduce variation and tackle wider recovery challenges.
Looking beyond the immediate challenges of this winter, he reiterated the need to ensure a stronger future for health and care including investment in NHS buildings.
He set out his commitment to prioritise hospitals built using reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) as part of transformation plans as well as the need to modernise the way NHS buildings are constructed, moving away from bespoke designs by individual trusts and towards standardised designs that can streamline the approvals process and reduce construction time. This will help deliver new hospitals more quickly with better value for money, as part of the government’s commitment to deliver 40 new hospitals by 2030.
He also set out the need to harness the opportunities of new ways of working shown by the pandemic including use of the NHS app to reduce pressures in primary care. From the end of the month patients will be able to book their Covid vaccine via the NHS app, reducing the burden on GP providers.
Closing his speech, he acknowledged the size of the collective challenge the system as a whole faces heading into winter and his commitment to working with the sector to build a more resilient, healthier NHS for the long-term.
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