Care providers ask for doubled fees to care for people discharged from hospitals

Prof Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said funding per person in a care home needed to be ‘at least £1,500 a week’. Photograph: Hollie Adams/Getty Images

Care providers are demanding double the usual fees to look after thousands of people who need to be discharged from hospitals to ease the crisis in the NHS.

Care England, which represents the largest private care home providers, said on Sunday it wanted the government to pay them £1,500 a week per person, citing the need to pay care workers more and hire rehabilitation specialists so people languishing in hospital can eventually be sent home.