THE NHS could save almost £1 billion a year by cutting the time patients stay in hospital, according to a Labour-supporting think tank.

Research published today by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) finds that longer stays than necessary are taking up the equivalent of 13,000 extra National Health Service beds every year.

The report argues that specialist services should be provided in fewer places and that more care should be provided outside hospital.

According to the research, the cost of excess hospital stays is about £975m a year and that, on average, hospitals have more than 60 beds taken up by patients staying longer than necessary. Some of these are elderly patients, sometimes called “bed blockers”, for whom there is no space in care homes. Others have simply not been discharged as quickly as they should after operations.

Resources could be better used to treat more patients to a higher standard of care, argues the report.

The figures are derived from the independent NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, with additional research by Dr Foster Intelligence, a health analysis company.

Some of the extra capacity freed should be used to reduce waiting times, says the IPPR, while other beds could be closed and the savings spent treating patients elsewhere in the health service.

It says: “At present, in part because of the political barriers to change, the NHS is not achieving the best outcomes from reconfiguration in terms of improving quality and access to services. Nor is it maintaining public trust and confidence in the process of change.

“This situation needs to be reversed if the NHS is going to succeed for future generations.”