Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, said the move would tackle the huge human and financial "waste" of bed blocking in England. There are 13,000 beds in England enough to fill 26 hospitals - being occupied by patients fit to leave but stuck there because a lack of care outside the hospital means they cannot be discharged.
If Labour wins the general election on 4 July it will put some of the NHS's £165bn budget into the plan as one of a series of immediate changes intended to relieve the crisis in the health service.
Streeting made clear in a speech that a Labour government would expect hospitals across England to follow the example of Leeds teaching hospitals NHS trust, which spends £9m a year buying care home beds to free up hospital beds.
That initiative which it launched as a way of avoiding a "winter crisis" in 2022-23 - has freed up 165 beds, helped reduce the number of patients who are admitted avoidably and saved the trust between £17m and £23m, it has estimated.
"We will learn from the great innovations already happening in the health service like this, and take the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS," said Streeting, who cited the Leeds approach as a model to follow when speaking to members of the Medical Journalists' Association.
This story is from the June 19, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the June 19, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
New year refresh A month-by-month guide to sorting out your finances
Rupert Jones and Hilary Osborne offer a checklist of the vital tasks you need to tackle throughout the year, from filing your tax return to making the most of your holiday cash
Lost in music How Britain's clubs are disappearing fast - and why they are worth rescuing
When the patrons of Watford's Przym nightclub celebrated New Year's Eve a year ago, they were marking the end of an era - or rather, seven eras.
Nissan shares down 15% as investors react to plan for merger
Shares in the Japanese carmaker Nissan have taken their biggest fall since August's stock market sell-off, as investors turned their attention to the company's planned tie-up with domestic rivals Honda and Mitsubishi.
Climbing out of trouble? Rise in share price suggests BA's turbulent days may be over
It's been a long and turbulent time since anyone used British Airways' old slogan \"the world's favourite airline\" with a straight face.
North-south divide flips as EU's periphery beats core economies
The European Central Bank is facing a tough balancing act in 2025, trying to navigate a reversal of fortunes in eurozone economies as the hardest-hit nations of the 2010s debt crisis outperform the traditional core.
Number of retailers on the brink of collapse up by 25%
Footfall levels up 18% on Christmas Eve compared with last year.
London-listed mining company halts operations in Mozambique
The London-listed mining company Gemfields said yesterday it had temporarily halted its ruby mining operation in Mozambique after groups \"took advantage\" of political unrest to attempt to invade and set fire to its site, resulting in two deaths.
Aid convoy reaches besieged area of Sudanese capital
An aid convoy has reached a besieged area of Khartoum for the first time since Sudan's civil war broke out in April 2023, bringing food and medicines in a country where half of the people are at risk of starvation.
Mexico The mayor who turned wasteland into a utopia
Mexico City's mayor, Clara Brugada, has never been afraid to court controversy and has taken some imaginative steps in her efforts to undo decades of economic and cultural inequality.
Crisis on cat island On Aoshima, is time finally running out for human and feline inhabitants?
The reason for Aoshima's nickname is clear before we set foot on the island.
