Hospital only discharge programme

NHS England’s National Discharge Taskforce has four workstreams.

Workstream 1 is focussing on Hospital only discharge, or pathway 0 discharge, for patients who don’t require further additional support after leaving hospital.

The hospital only discharge (HOD) programme was established in February 2022. Since then, 15 pilot trusts have been working with the HOD team to help identify the main blockers and barriers in hospital discharge delays.

During the pilot, the 15 pilot trusts have received a range of support from the discharge taskforce, NHS England’s Emergency Care Improvement Support Team, regional and trust leads and system partners.

The pilot trusts have made positive progress, with most trusts seeing an improvement in their Pathway 0 discharge delays performance.

A full information pack on the Hospital Only Discharge pilot programme is available on FutureNHS (registration required). This pack sets out the findings of the pilot, and includes a ‘how-to’ guide, tools and templates. Colleagues can use these resources to help improve hospital discharge delays within their own organisation.