Answer from Hansard

The Minister for Secondary Care (Karin Smyth)

My hon. Friend makes an excellent point about the importance of intermediate care, which is a key component of supporting patients into discharge to recover outside of hospitals. Community beds play an important role, but we are clear that home-based intermediate care also needs support, particularly for frail people, through neighbourhood health. That should be the default pathway, and we will continue to work with the system to make that happen.