Figures show that more than 14,000 beds in NHS hospitals are occupied every day by patients whose health allows them to be discharged, prompting experts to call on ministers to get the crisis under control.

The data emerged in a damning report that revealed that nearly a fifth of care providers had to wait weeks for patients to be handed over to them.

A survey of 568 care homes and home care providers in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland found wide regional differences. In addition, there was no agreement on how to pay for a person’s social care, which is the most commonly cited reason for delaying entry into a care service.

Others said that incorrect or inadequate information from NHS hospital staff, lack of communication, waiting times for patient care assessments or lack of transport also contributed to delays in patients leaving hospital.

Seventeen percent of respondents said the average time for a person to be discharged from the hospital into their care was one to two weeks, while 7 percent said it was three weeks or more.

The East of England performed best in terms of discharge: 96% of patients were admitted to a care facility within a week.

Half of providers surveyed in Scotland said it took more than a week to discharge; in the West Midlands, 15% and in Yorkshire and the Humber, 10% said it took more than three weeks for a patient to be admitted to their care.

Autumna, a care directory service that conducted the survey, said the samples from Wales and Northern Ireland were too small to provide reliable regional results.

The latest NHS figures for England show that in July an average of 12,326 hospital patients per day were medically fit and ready for discharge to various facilities, but this was not the case.

According to the latest figures from the Scottish NHS, the average number of beds occupied per day in June was 1,983, taken up by patients who should have left hospital. This is an increase on May (1,942) and the highest number ever recorded.

According to Prof. Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, the report depicts a system that is “failing” and whose condition “will only get worse unless remedial action is taken”.

He added: “Care providers are frustrated and angry because there is no clear and strategic approach to discharge and because no one is providing a national perspective.”

“We constantly hear about bottlenecks in hospitals, the root cause of which is often the lack of a clear and strategic approach to the appropriate discharge of patients.”

The pressures on the NHS are often self-inflicted, he added, and are a symptom of a system that is “obsessed” with processes and has “forgotten” that patients should be at the centre.

Mike Padgham, chairman of the Independent Care Group, which represents social care providers in Yorkshire, said the report was the latest in a long line that painted a “grim and unacceptable” picture.

“Enough is enough,” he said. “The system must be reformed so that people get the care they need, when and where they need it.”

Debbie Harris, founder of Autumna, said the results were a “wake-up call” to Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting that the system was broken and needed urgent reform.

“The pressure will only increase as our population ages, so we need to fix the system now before it collapses completely,” she said.

The NHS said it was aware that the number of delayed discharges was “unacceptable” and that it was working to improve the system.

The government said it wanted to reform the social care sector and create a national care service, but gave no indication of when this would happen.