£5 million to clear hospital beds and backlogs in Lincolnshire 'must be spent quickly'

Lincolnshire’s health chiefs need to decide how to spend nearly £5 million by mid-December.

Steve Barclay, secretary of state for health, has announced Lincolnshire County Council will receive £2.8 million and Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board £2.1 million.

The money is coming from a £500 million adult social care discharge fund.

The fund aims to clear hospital beds and backlogs and speed up processes, alleviating pressure on the NHS.

Glen Garrod, Lincolnshire County Council's executive director for adult care, told a scrutiny committee on Wednesday the cash would help protect the county’s services.

“The main effort is to help the social care providers in Lincolnshire be as resilient as possible, to maintain existing capacity and, where possible, expand it,” he said.

Both pots of money must be spent by next April.

Bosses want county scrutiny committees to sign off on the plans by Tuesday (December 6) before a final submission on December 16. But it is unclear when the money will arrive.

“There’s no clarity as to when we will be told whether our plan and spend profile is going to be approved, but the expectation is that we will start to report on the benefits of that investment on December 30 – so for a number of colleagues, there’s no Christmas break, I’m afraid,” said Mr Garrod.

“This has to be spent very quickly,” he added.

The council's adult and community wellbeing committee will receive a full report on the flow of acute patients through Lincolnshire hospitals in February.

Launching the fund last week, Mr Barclay said: “It is vital those areas with the biggest challenges are seeing the most funding to help speed up the discharge of patients from hospital.”

He warned that if the funds are not used well, a second batch in January may be withheld.