Midland council delays leading to beds being blocked

Councils are causing thousands of cases of bed blocking in the region's hospitals, it emerged today. Social services departments are failing to quickly carry out assessments and get places at care homes ready for patients.

Patients are then having to stay in hospital longer. Local authorities in the Black Country are performing worse than those in other parts, with 45 per cent of delays caused by social services compared to 32 per cent across England, according to a Department of Health breakdown.

During November, the five major hospitals in the Black Country saw a total of 2,984 bed days lost due to delays.

A total of 1,360 of these were caused solely by social care delays, with the worst offender being Sandwell Council. It caused 900 bed days to be lost at the Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals Trust.

The trust saw the biggest total of bed days lost, recording 1,324. The biggest single cause of bed blocking was due to delays in patients being assessed to decide what care they need, accounting for a total of 1,143 bed days lost.

Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital had 798 bed days lost, with 140 caused by council delays. Russells Hall Hospital lost 436 bed days due to delays, with 100 caused by social services.

Stafford Hospital lost 360 days, with 175 caused by social services while Walsall's Manor Hospital lost 66 bed days with 45 caused by the borough council.

The Government has invested millions into speeding up the discharge of patients and helping as many people as possible to get help with living at home.

Across the Black Country and Staffordshire £5.9 million will be spent in a bid to get people leaving hospital quicker. Wolverhampton City Council spokesman Paul Brown said: "We are working on a number of joint initiatives which are helping to improve discharge times."

By Shaun Lintern