Over £3 million for community care beds in Wiltshire
The money's been announced by the Government
More than £3 million has been given to NHS bosses for the area including Wiltshire, towards more community care beds.
The cash follows an announcement from Health Secretary, Steve Barclay, about further support for the struggling sector during the winter.
£200 million is going towards community care beds across the country, to help discharge around 2,500 people for hospitals.
It's aimed at preventing bed blocking, when patients are fit to leave hospital care, but can't because they don't have a care package in place.
£50 million is also being spent nationally to create ‘modular units’ - dedicated spaces to free up beds and help get ambulances back on the road.
South West Wiltshire MP, Dr Andrew Murrison has welcomed the funding.
He's long argued that discharge rates are key to improving healthcare.
Dr Murrison said:
"I'm meeting our local Integrated Care Board soon and will press it on how our allocation will be spent so medically fit people can be discharged quickly from the RUH (in Bath) and Salisbury (District Hospital) to home or homely settings in the community.
"We have battled community hospital closures locally over the years, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. This welcome initiative bears us out."