Delayed discharges from hospital

Background

One of the biggest challenges facing the NHS is the continued high number of patients who experience delayed discharge from hospital – whereby someone is deemed medically fit to leave hospital but is not yet discharged. Long stays in hospital cause harm to patients, as well as impacting how the wider health system works, by causing delays to admission from A&E, which in turn increases ambulance handover and response times. 

Most people admitted to a hospital will be discharged home without any additional support; however some may require formal support in their own home, a short-term bed or a permanent bed in a care home. Discharging patients at the right time to the right location requires a well-coordinated system that can adequately meet the needs of patients. Delays arise when discharge processes in hospitals are slow and when capacity is constrained in out-of-hospital care. 

Patients with a longer length of stay in hospital (considered three weeks or more) tend to be in poorer health and may require more support upon discharge. It is therefore important to understand how delayed discharges differ by length of stay and where demand is most pronounced. 

Responding to and reducing the number of delayed patients in acute hospitals has been a top priority for the government. The NHS delivery plan for urgent and emergency services recognises the need to improve discharge processes in hospitals and expand capacity in both intermediate care and social care. Between 2020 and 2025, the government introduced several pots intended to reduce delayed discharge and increase community capacity for post-hospital care. Since 2025, discharge funding to reduce delayed discharges has been rolled into the local authority contribution to the Better Care Fund, which totalled £2.6 million in 2026/27. In advance of longer-term reform, the goals for the Better Care Fund for 2026/27 include a joined-up approach to delivering neighbourhood health, with a focus on intermediate care, and reducing delayed discharges.

This indicator explores the number of patients experiencing delayed discharges in acute hospitals and the reasons why they were delayed according to their length of stay.  We also analyse the trend in delayed discharge for patients in community hospitals.

Delayed discharges by length of stay

The total number of patients in acute hospitals who were ready to leave hospital but were delayed has increased by 12% from an average of 12,201 patients per day in January 2022 to an average of 13,750 patients per day in January 2026. At its peak, in January 2024, there were 14,096 patients delayed in hospital. 

The number of delayed patients who had been in hospital for 20 days or less has remained relatively constant since the dataset began at a daily average of 5,992. Changes in the total number of delayed patients are mainly attributed to increases in delayed patients who have been in hospital for up to 21 days or longer.  Between January 2022 and January 2026, the number of delayed discharges for these long-stay patients increased by 8%, from 5,959 to 6,413. Growing numbers of delayed patients with a long length of stay would suggest squeezed capacity, particularly in formal care services providing long-term and formal care.

The impact of winter on the number of delayed patients is apparent with peaks seen yearly in January since 2022. The fall and rise of delayed discharges observed this year may also be indicative of winter pressures. Every winter sees an increase in A&E admissions and a reduction of staff due to sickness absence that can hinder effective discharge processes within hospitals. 

Reasons for delay

Identifying the reason for delay helps us understand where failures in discharge occur and whether they differ by how long someone has been in hospital for. Reasons for delay are shown for people with a length of hospital stay of 7 days or more.

Since May 2024, reasons for delay have been reclassified into five categories: hospital process (i.e. internal hospital actions or procedures required before a patient can be referred onwards), wellbeing concerns (i.e. unresolved concerns about a patient's readiness or safety to be discharged), care transfer hub process (i.e. confirming care needs, making referrals, or checking funding eligibility), interface process (i.e. brokering and arranging the patient's post-discharge care package with external partners), and capacity (i.e. where the discharge plan is agreed but the required service, placement, or provision is not yet available).

In 2025, capacity issues were the leading cause of hospital delays across all lengths of stay, affecting nearly 3,700  patients a week who stayed in hospital for 7 days or more. Patients with longer hospital stays (21 days or more) account for over half (around 56%) of those with at least a week hospital stay, in cases related to capacity constraints, interface processes, and wellbeing concerns. This could point to system pressures that disproportionately affect patients with more complex needs. 

Delayed discharges in community trusts 

The total number of patients in community trusts who were ready to leave but were delayed has increased by 1% from an average of 2,266 patients per day in September 2024 to an average of 2,294 patients per day in January 2026. 

Since September 2024, the number of delayed patients in community trust has been notably flat throughout, holding consistently at around 2,150 to 2,300 with little to no variation. 

The number of patients occupying beds in community trusts has shown little fluctuation across the period, peaking in January 2025 to almost 9,500 patients in community trusts before easing slightly into spring 2025 and then recovering to similar levels by early 2026. This trend could be indicative of small winter pressures on community trusts.