PATIENTS trapped in the region’s hospitals after they are ready to go home cost the NHS more than £1m a month, new figures suggest.

There were 4,228 “delayed days” – spent in hospital beds, because patients cannot be discharged – across the North-East and North Yorkshire in January alone.

The department of health (DH) has previously estimated that each day that a hospital bed is occupied unnecessarily costs the health service £273.

If the figure is accurate, it would mean the cost in this region for those 4,228 delayed days would run to £1.15m.

Liz Kendall, Labour’s care spokeswoman, said such “appalling figures” were the consequence of savage cuts to social care after grant cuts to local authorities.

And she said: “Increasing numbers of frail, elderly people are reaching crisis point, ending up in A&E and getting stuck in hospital.

“This could be avoided if they had the right care and support in the community or at home. Instead, this Government has slashed social care.”

Ms Kendall said such delays cost £285m in the last year alone – enough to pay for a year of home visits for almost 41,000 elderly people, or 6,840 nurses.

But the figures show that County Durham succeeded in slashing delayed days in January, albeit from a sky-high total of 1,301 a year earlier.

There were 720 in the first month of 2015, which Durham County Council argued was “well below the national average for England”.

Jane Robinson, its head of commissioning, said: “The drop in figures can be attributed to a number of factors, including changes in recording practices and continued close working with partners to improve services.

“We now have more services than ever in place, such as the intermediate care plus service, to support those requiring help when being discharged from hospital.”

The big fall in County Durham explains an overall decline in delayed days across the region, from 4,586 in January 2014, to 4,228 a year later – a reduction of 7.8 per cent.

There were also improvements in Darlington (down 17 per cent), Middlesbrough (18.1 per cent), Sunderland (45.6 per cent) and York (15.2 per cent).

But delayed discharges are sharply on the rise in Stockton-on-Tees (up 54.2 per cent), Redcar and Cleveland (32.3 per cent), North Yorkshire (16 per cent), Newcastle (34.5 per cent) and – in particular – Gateshead (123.8 per cent) and South Tyneside (320.6 per cent).

A DH spokesman said the NHS had been given an extra £700m to “buy thousands more doctors, nurses and beds” over the winter months, to meet rising demand.

The figures cover delays after acute care only, involving surgery after severe injuries or illnesses, or to treat urgent medical conditions.

Local councils have warned they will be unable to meet the social care costs of an ageing population in the years to come, if steep grant cuts continue.