(2) if she will publish a list detailing the current level of bed blocking within the NHS by (a) strategic health authority, (b) primary care trust, (c) acute hospital trust and (d) local authority area;
(3) what her estimate is of the cost of bed blocking to the NHS in each year since 1997;
(4) what steps her Department is taking to stop bed blocking in the NHS;
(5) how her Department is working with those local authorities which operate care homes for the elderly to reduce bed blocking in the NHS; and if she will make a statement;
(6) what assessment her Department has made of the effects of hospital bed blocking on (a) local authority run elderly care homes and (b) privately run elderly care homes in (i) England and (ii) Cumbria.
The Government are committed to reducing the number of patients who are delayed in hospital, even though they are fit to be discharged. As part of the strategy to tackle this problem, since January 2004 if a patient is delayed in discharging from acute services solely because community care arrangements are lacking, the culpable local authority will have to reimburse the acute national health service trust.
In order to help councils with social services responsibility, whether or not they operate care homes for the elderly, £100 million has been transferred from the NHS for each year since 2003-04 to defray the cost of any reimbursements. Those councils that reduce the number of such delayed transfers can reinvest the money saved in alternative social services.
We have made no estimate of the cost of delayed discharges to the NHS, the effect on operation waiting times, or the development and spread of hospital-acquired infections.
We have made no assessment of the effect of delayed discharge by either local authority run, or privately run, elderly care homes. The latest available figures, for quarter 4 2006-07, detailing the number of delayed discharge cases for each primary care trust, have been placed in Library.