Pritchard's comments came in supplementary evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee following her appearance on 29 January.

‘Analysis suggests that around two-thirds of bed days lost to delayed discharges are associated with individuals accessing adult social care, community care and/or care home services on discharge. A third of these delays – around a fifth overall - are for individuals accessing adult social care packages on discharge.

‘Eliminating the lost bed days for just the third of delays for individuals accessing adult social care packages on discharge would reduce average lengths of stay, aid system flow and theoretically deliver an improvement in A&E 4 hour performance. If all other things were equal, including the rate of admissions and rate of flow through hospitals, theoretically this could potentially improve performance by up to 6%.'

Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, told HM: ‘Amanda Pritchard was absolutely right that if they could get a proper approach to delayed discharge, there would be significant improvements in NHS performance and A&E waiting times.

‘The fault for this lies entirely with both the NHS and ICBs, which were supposed to improve integration, but they have all failed to use their resources effectively to improve the discharge process. If the NHS would spend some of its money outside the NHS, and if ICBs did their job properly, we would significantly improve NHS performance and long-term discharge pathways, which would benefit citizens and the health and care system.'