LESS than one per cent of patients in Oxfordshire are discharged overnight, it has been revealed.

Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that 679 patients were discharged between the hours of 11pm and 6am in 2011/12.

This makes up only 0.71 per cent of the 95,237 people who left the trust’s hospitals last year.

The figures include patients who are discharged at their own request. According to the figures, the worst-performing Oxfordshire hospital is the Horton General Hospital which discharged 135 or 1.03 per cent of its 13,044 patients overnight.

The John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford discharged 54,256 people last year, but only 474 – or 0.87 per cent – of them were sent home at night.

Earlier this year it was revealed a total of 239,233 patients were discharged overnight across England in 2011.