Thousands of NHS patients will be moved into care homes under Government plans to ease crippling pressures on the health service.
Amid crisis scenes in emergency care, Health Secretary Steve Barclay will today unveil a emergency winter package to alleviate the intense pressures on A&E and ambulance services.
Ministers have earmarked £250million to upgrade hospitals and buy up thousands of extra beds in care homes for patients who are well enough to be discharged - to free up space on hospital wards and speed up ambulance handovers.
But Labour branded the plans "yet another sticking plaster" rather than an attempt to fix health and care services "buckling" under pressure.
Care home chiefs also warned that the idea would not address the long-term root cause of the crisis which successive governments have failed to address.
There are currently 13,000 people stuck in English hospitals who are well enough to leave but need support so they can't go home.
Under the plan, the Government will shell out for short-term placements in community settings, such as care homes, to fund stays of up to four weeks per patient until the end of March.
The idea is to reduce pressure on A&Es and speed up ambulance handovers by allowing patients to be admitted to wards from emergency departments more quickly - and prevent queues of emergency vehicles outside hospitals.
The cash will come from existing health budgets rather than new funding for beds from the Treasury.
Mr Barclay said: “The NHS is under enormous pressure from Covid and flu, and on top of tackling the backlog caused by the pandemic, Strep A and upcoming strikes, this winter poses an extreme challenge.
“I am taking urgent action to reduce pressure on the health service, including investing an additional £200 million to enable the NHS to immediately buy up beds in the community to safely discharge thousands of patients from hospital and free up hospital capacity, on top of the £500 million we’ve already invested to tackle this issue."
Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said ministers "never, ever understand that they should learn from their mistakes", and that he is not clear on how the latest plan differs from the previous initiative.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I also think that a lot of the challenges we face are because successive governments have failed to find a proper approach to social care.
"And what we're seeing now is the fact that people are going into crisis and then going into hospital.
"So what this new money might do is it might alleviate an immediate problem but it will not get to the long-term root cause of the issues."
But nursing leaders warned that the move "won't make a difference" without halting the "exodus" of staff.
RCN England director Patricia Marquis said the "aspiration in this policy is right", but added: "But the lack of beds in social care isn't really the problem, it's the lack of staff.
"Without investment in staff, providing more facilities - whether it's more beds in care homes or hospitals - won't make a difference.
"Nursing staff are leaving the profession in their droves and pay is a key factor. To halt the exodus, ministers must pay them fairly."
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said Labour would instead "tackle the root cause of the crisis" by recruiting and retaining more carers.
"This is yet another sticking plaster to cover the fact that under the Conservatives, our health and care services are buckling," he said.
"The Tories' failure to fix social care means thousands of patients who are medically fit to be discharged remain stranded, leaving hospitals gridlocked. It is worse for patients and more expensive for the taxpayer."
Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson Daisy Cooper said it was "unforgivable" that plans to tackle the winter crisis were only being announced in January.
“Conservative ministers have been asleep at the wheel for months, while hospitals fill up to the brim and patients are catastrophically let down," she said/
“The government must now declare a national critical incident and fast-track the rest of the £500m of funding to discharge fit patients into social care."
It comes as Mr Barclay is due to host talks with health union staff today in a battle to break the deadlock over pay.
Nurses and ambulance crews are due to walk out again this month without a breakthrough - which still looks unlikely as Mr Barclay is still unwilling to negotiate this year's pay settlement.
