FUNDING has been secured for a care centre which will help elderly hospital patients return home and free up beds.

Many elderly patients face long stays in over-subscribed medical wards because of a lack of residential care home beds, or specific hospital units where they can be rehabilitated before going home.

The situation leads to bed blocking, where valuable hospital beds remain unavailable for patients on waiting lists awaiting treatment.

In an effort to overcome the problem, Darlington Primary Care Trust (PCT) and Darlington Social Services have successfully bid for £634,000 from the Department of Health to build a residential care unit in the town.

It is hoped that the 15-bed unit, in Hundens Lane, will be open by June next year and will provide an essential stepping stone between hospital care and pensioners' own homes.

The centre will have facilities for the carers of elderly people as well as offering nursing and therapy care to patients who would otherwise face an unnecessarily long stay in hospital.

The unit will work to ensure that elderly people can recover fully from illnesses in comfortable and supported surroundings before returning home but without being confined to hospital.

Colin Morris, chief executive of Darlington PCT, said: "This is about creating real alternatives to hospital admissions and improving direct services to vulnerable people, while at the same time enabling them to stay in their own community."

A project team, including members of the PCT, social services and Darlington doctors' surgeries, has already been appointed to oversee the development of the unit.

It is hoped that a design company will be appointed in the next few weeks to start more detailed work on the building.

Councillor Bill Dixon, of Darlington Borough Council, said: "This goes to build on the close relationship between the PCT and the social services department in Darlington and is another fine illustration of what partnership working can deliver."

Both social services and the PCT will put money into the centre to pay for expected running costs of £407,000 a year, but the Department of Health grant is expected to cover all the building costs.