§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what cushion funding is included in the delayed discharge grant for each local authority for 2003–04. [126839]
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§ Dr. LadymanAll local authorities have been allocated their full share of the £50 million Delayed Discharges Grant. 10 local authorities have received top-up funding totalling £0.8 million in addition to their allocations under the Delayed Discharges Grant 2003–04, so that the total grant is £50.8 million. This means that all local authorities should receive more in grant than they are liable to pay in reimbursement charges, if the level of delayed discharges reduces from the situation recorded in March 2003.
The extra councils and their individual top-up allocations are shown in the table.
Top-up allocations £ million Local authority Extra funding Hampshire 0.280 Surrey 0.119 Reading 0.102 Darlington 0.096 Brighton and Hove 0.089 Bracknell Forest 0.048 Lambeth 0.031 Hillingdon 0.022 West Berkshire 0.011 Sutton 0.001 Total 0.800
§ Mr. AmessTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on delayed discharges. [126489]
§ Dr. LadymanThe latest figures on delayed discharge (March 2003), which are available in the Library, show that there were approximately 3,000 patients aged over 75 years experiencing delayed discharge from hospital on any one day in March 2003, compared with 5,673 over 75s in September 2001. This figure has almost halved since the Government made extra funding available to councils to tackle delayed discharges.