NHS will face a ‘winter of woe’ unless patients are discharged quicker to free up beds, leading surgeons warn

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The NHS will face a ‘winter of woe’ unless patients are discharged quicker to free up beds for more operations, leading surgeons have warned.

The Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) stressed hospitals and local authorities need to work together to improve handover of patients.

A total of 181,692 ‘bed days’ were lost to delayed discharges in July 2017. This is when patients are fine to go home, but can’t be discharged safely. 

Nearly four million patients are currently waiting for surgery, startling new figures show, as waiting lists continue to grow across the country. 

NHS England data showed 3.85 million patients on the waiting list for non-urgent hospital care in July – a slight increase on the record-breaking June.

Of these, some 420,000 patients have had to wait longer than the 18-week mark – a time target introduced by the last Labour government in 2007. 

a5afa206d28faceb7b5f379e0c4faa50 NHS will face a 'winter of woe' unless patients are discharged quicker to free up beds, leading surgeons warn

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