SIR - It’s encouraging to see NHS chiefs taking a strong stance against delayed transfers of care. For far too long, people have suffered unnecessarily as they find themselves trapped in hospital beds through no fault of their own.

The NHS has voiced a commitment to working with trusts and local systems to deliver this target. Now they must act. Historically, it has been frustrating because there are solutions on offer that have not been taken up on a wider scale. Anchor's successful trials offering ‘re-ablement’ beds at a care home in Birmingham, for example, have shown that better alignment of the health and social care sectors can improve lives and save the NHS hundreds of thousands of pounds.

We must not forget the bleakness of the NHS winter crisis. Now is the time to put structures in place across health and social care to ensure the system does not fail the people it is meant to serve.

Jane Ashcroft CBE, Chief Executive at Anchor, England’s largest not-for-profit care and housing provider