Hospital bed blocking costing £2.7bn a year

THE cost of delayed discharges in the NHS has risen to £2.7 billion, up 7.5% in a year, figures show.

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Analysis by the King’s Fund charity showed one in 10 hospital beds at any one time are taken up with people who are medically fit to leave.

Delays in discharge occur for a number of reasons, including problems in arranging social care in people’s own homes and issues with care home spaces and funding.

This has a knock-on impact on hospitals, with a lack of beds meaning other patients can end up in corridors while they wait for a bed, leading to so-called “corridor care”.

Last year, there were nearly 13,000 delayed discharges daily, up 300 on the 2024-25 daily average.