Discharge delays (Acute)

Daily returns are collected from acute trusts through the COVID-19 acute daily discharge situation report (SitRep) and include data on daily discharges from acute settings.

Note that daily data are collected on discharges from acute hospitals, and a weekly snapshot is collected for information on patients who have remained in hospital since no longer meeting the criteria to reside decision was made.

The publication contains management data which has been set up for COVID-19 incident management and collected on a rapid turn-round basis from the NHS. The speed of the collection only permits minimal validation to be undertaken but the data is considered ‘fit-for-purpose’ as NHS management information.

Background and Scope

The published data include daily numbers of patients:

Who no longer meet the criteria to reside;
Discharged by 17:00 or between 17:01 and 23:59;
Not discharged by the end of the day.

And a weekly snapshot of:

Number of additional days in total patients have remained in hospital since no longer meeting the criteria to reside decision was made (7+ days, 14+ days, and 21+ days length of stay);

Data are shown at regional, system and provider organisation level.

This SitRep collects data for all inpatients 18 and over including critical care and COVID-19 positive patients but excluding paediatrics, maternity, and deceased patients. This includes data for acute trusts with a type 1 A&E department. Mental Health Trusts, specialised Trusts (including Children’s and Women’s Trusts) are not in scope of this collection.

Other collections

Weekly timeseries discharge delays data for the 22/23 winter period can be found here –

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/uec-sitrep/urgent-and-emergency-care-daily-situation-reports-2022-23/

Please note the monthly publication and weekly timeseries figures are likely to differ.

Monthly publications data can be revised prior to publication where as weekly publications data do not undergo a revisions process.

Other information relating to delays is available in the Delayed Transfer of Care (DTOC) page here –

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/delayed-transfers-of-care/

The DTOC metric is no longer being collected and publication has therefore ceased. The last publication of these data was for delays occurring in February 2020, published on 9th April 2020.

The DTOC data is not comparable with acute discharge delays data published on this page but does offer historic data on patients and days delayed at provider organisation level.