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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Gregory Health editor

NHS yet to see ‘a single penny’ of promised £500m emergency fund

A queue of ambulances at a hospital in London
13,000 out of 100,000 NHS hospital beds in England contain ‘delayed discharge’ patients, causing A&E congestion and delayed ambulance handovers. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

Hospitals and care homes have not received a single penny of a £500m emergency fund promised by the government to prevent the NHS becoming overwhelmed this winter, the Guardian has learned.

Ministers announced they were injecting the cash into the health and social care system last month, to help get thousands of medically fit patients out of hospital into either their own home or a care home as soon as possible in an effort to better prepare the NHS for the coming months.

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