NHS: Bed-blocking
House of Lords
Baroness Gale (Labour)
To ask Her Majesty's Government what they estimate is the level and cost of bed-blocking in the National Health Service in England.
Earl Howe (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Quality), Health; Conservative)
We have made no estimate of the cost to the National Health Service of delayed transfers of care.
The department collects and routinely publishes information on delayed transfers of care. The most recent data are for May 2011 and these show that there were 4,158 patients delayed on the last Thursday of the month, with the total number of delayed days in the month at 114,241 days.