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Patients kept in hospital longer than necessary are costing the NHS almost £1bn a year, leading think-tank the Institute for Public Policy Research has found.

This constitutes 13,000 excess NHS beds, and in a report published yesterday the IPPR called for bed numbers to be cut and savings invested in community services, in line with government thinking.

IPPR associate director Richard Brooks said: “If local communities oppose every hospital change we won’t get the health service we deserve. Not every hospital bed closure is a bad thing.”