Our response to Lord Carter's review of efficiency in hospitals
Responding to the Lord Carter of Coles review into how NHS hospitals can cut costs, which found that delayed discharge of patients from hospital is costing the NHS £900 million a year, our Interim Chair, Jane Mordue, said:
"The Carter review echoes the findings of our inquiry into unsafe discharge, 'Safely Home'.
"We found that poor co-ordination of health and social care services is resulting in too many people being kept in hospital longer than necessary, causing suffering and costing the health service millions.
"From the moment we are admitted, all staff across health and care services need to start planning how and when we are going to leave hospital.
"Some services are managing these problems better than others by working with patients and investing more time in discharge planning. We want to see this replicated across the board, ensuring that everyone experiences a safe and timely discharge."
