Experts have warned that elderly patients are being discharged too early, putting their health at risk and increasing the likelihood of them being readmitted to hospital.
The full scale of the cuts emerged after a year in which the NHS faced sustained criticism for its treatment of the elderly.
The Daily Telegraph surveyed 172 NHS trusts about how many beds they had closed.
Of the 39 trusts which responded, it emerged a total of 469 hospital beds have been cut since April 2010. Of these, 259 were specifically elderly beds.
According to the latest Department of Health figures, 17% of the 121,000 beds in NHS hospitals are for the elderly, suggesting that managers have deliberately targeted elderly beds for cuts.
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