THE East Lancashire Hospitals NHS trust has been slammed over its ‘diabolical’ record on discharging patients overnight.

An urgent health service inquiry was been launched after a request revealed that nationally, up to 8,000 patients a week are being sent home between 11pm and 6am to free up beds.

The East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust came seventh in the list of 100 hospital trusts that responded to the request, with figures showing 6.1 per cent of patients were released during the night last year.

Labour Councillor Ronald O’Keefe, chair of Blackburn with Darwen Council’s Health Scrutiny Committee, which is currently responsible for evaluating NHS services, said the situation was ‘diabolical’.

He said: “Nobody should be discharged from hospital between 11pm and 6am and shoved in a taxi — it’s just not on. In the old days, there would be a doctor who came round in the morning to inspect whether you were able to go home, but now it seems to be any Tom, Dick or Harry doing it.

I don’t think that anyone should be sent home after 9pm, because they’ll be going back to a cold house, a cold bed and it will be dark.

“I will look at the statistics for our area and see what is being done.”

Derby Hospitals Foundation Trust came top of the list, as it sent 8.7 per cent of its patients home overnight.

NHS medical director Sir Bruce Keogh has ordered the probe into how 239,233 people, including pensioners, were treated.