HIGH-level talks are taking place to avert a hospital bed crisis in Darlington this winter.

On Monday, board members of South Durham health care NHS trust were told that the budget was in the red by £957,453 at the end of October.

With no additional winter funding available within County Durham and Darlington, and 62 beds already blocked throughout the trust's seven hospitals because of a shortage of residential nursing care beds, the system was already overloaded.

Last year at this time there were only 22 patients awaiting discharge to residential care.

A cash injection of £50,000 agreed last week by Darlington primary care group to help manage the looming crisis was said to only go a short way towards ameliorating the situation on the wards.

The PCG is pumping £11,500 into the Richardson hospital at Barnard Castle to support rehabilitation and therapy there. The hospital is set to take elderly patients from Darlington who no longer need acute nursing care but still require help before they can live independently.

A further £15,000 will go to extend the immediate response team which works with nursing and residential homes to prevent avoidable hospital admissions and promote quicker hospital discharges.

Although welcomed by the trust, the measures were said to be unlikely to have a significant impact on freeing beds.

Other measures funded by the PCG include increased GP coverage in the emergency department at the Memorial hospital on Boxing Day, additional ambulance transport to increase out of hours and weekend discharges and a joint funded contract with social services to provide four intermediate care beds over the winter.

Miss Laura Robson, director of nursing and community services for the trust, said: "Acute wards are not the right place for people who do not need to be in hospital.

"There are not enough nursing home beds in Darlington even with the local authority putting back the closure of two of its homes. Although the Richardson hospital is a better place for these patients, relatives have to travel to Barnard Castle to visit them which creates problems too."

Miss Robson, however, believed throwing more cash at the situation was not the long-term answer.

"With huge investment we could free up beds but then we would still be putting people into an acute environment when they need not be there," she said.

The trust is working with Darlington social services to try to find alternate solutions.

"Every bed we have is occupied now and the winter hasn't really started yet," added Miss Robson.

One solution under discussion is the possibility of opening immediate care beds at the Anchor-supported housing sch-eme in Greenbank Road.

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