At least £5m is to be made available to Essex County Council to increase care capacity and enable more people to be discharged from hospital this winter.

It comes amid the most recent figures showing that more than 300 people had to wait more than 12 hours in A&E in Essex in October.

Essex County Council has been told it will receive £4.9m directly from the Government's Winter Discharge Fund and may receive 'significant' other funding via the NHS.

Proposals are being prepared based on splitting the allocation between schemes to support workforce, discharges and admission avoidance.

This is to increase care capacity and make it easier or more attractive for adult social care providers to take on more people who are being discharged from hospital.

It is that aspect which many NHS bosses say needs focus to relieve pressure on beds as the service heads into the winter.

A total of 69,503 people attended Accident & Emergency departments across Essex in October, according to data released by the NHS.

Some 342 of those had to wait over 12 hours before being admitted to a ward bed. Back in January 235 people had to wait over 12 hours in A&E.

By July it had risen to 216 people. In August it was 134 people, and in September it was 160 before more than doubling in October.

Neill Moloney, deputy chief executive at East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT), which runs Colchester and Ipswich hospitals has said they "continue to work closely with teams across the health and social care sector to make sure only those patients who really need to be in hospital are those who are in a hospital bed".

A statement as part of a urgent decision to be made by cabinet member for adult social care Councillor John Spence said: "The Government announced a new funding stream called the Winter Discharge Fund.

"Essex County Council will receive £4.9m directly and may receive significant other funding via the NHS.

"We need to decide urgently how to spend the money on increasing care capacity and making it easier or more attractive for providers to take packages of care of people who are being discharged from hospital."

A statement to the Health Overview Policy and Scrutiny Committee at the beginning of November said: "We are considering how we utilise any allocation from the £500m winter discharge fund, which was announced in September.

"It can be used flexibly, used to address areas of greatest challenge and be used to support staff retention and recruitment. Proposals are being prepared based on splitting the allocation between schemes to support workforce, discharges and admission avoidance."