ELDERLY patients are waiting up to four months to be discharged from hospital wards - even though they are not ill, The Northern Echo can reveal.

Despite extra Government money to tackle so-called "bed-blocking", cash-starved social services bosses have admitted they cannot afford to buy more nursing home places.

The situation means that increasing numbers of elderly patients who no longer need acute medical treatment are trapped on desperately-needed hospital beds.

As winter approaches, it is feared the knock-on effect will lead to cancelled operations and longer waits for treatment.

The daughter of a 79-year-old woman patient at Chester-le-Street Hospital, who has been waiting for discharge into a nursing home for the past four months, said: "My father has been told there is no money available to discharge my mother into a nursing home, where a private room is waiting for her.

"Do we have to wait until the new financial year next April? I hope not!"

A survey of seven North-East and North Yorkshire hospital trusts by The Northern Echo revealed that a total of 228 beds are currently blocked by elderly patients awaiting discharge.

County Durham and Darlington Health Authority said the upward trend in blocked beds from 81 in March to 93 in September was "a cause for concern".

Tees Health Authority said the number of blocked beds went up from 58 in June to 67 in September.

Dr Stuart Hutchinson, clinical director for medicine at the University Hospital of North Durham, said the survey indicated there was probably the equivalent of an entire hospital made up of blocked beds in the region.

"The perception is that the bed-blocking problem is mostly caused by funding. At the moment, there doesn't seem to have been a big decline in the number of homes out there," said Dr Hutchinson.

"Families have often identified a place in a nursing home but they have to wait for the funding to come through."

Dr Hutchinson said it took about four months for patients awaiting discharge to a home to reach the head of the queue.

"It's very frustrating. It affects the whole hospital system and it means patients are in limbo," he added.

Recently, the chief executive of North Durham Health Care NHS Trust, Steven Mason, said that he believed that solving the bed-blocking problem was "the key" to easing the severe shortage of beds at the new £97m University Hospital of North Durham.

Figures supplied by hospitals in the region show that the South Durham trust, which includes hospitals in Darlington, Bishop Auckland, Barnard Castle, Stanhope, Sedgefield and Crook, has the most number of blocked beds - 61.

The much larger Newcastle Hospitals trust reported 53 blocked beds.

South Tees trust officials said they had 25 delayed discharges, with another 30 at North Tees and Hartlepool.

Gateshead trust had 22 blocked beds, with North-allerton only six.

While Newcastle and North Tyneside Health Authority said they had 60 blocked beds in their area this had not changed in recent months.

The only hopeful sign was a decline in blocked beds in Gateshead and South Tyneside health authority area from 56 in June to 41 in September.

The daughter of the Chester-le-Street patient, who has asked not to be identified, said she had written to Durham Social Services director Peter Kemp asking when the funding will come through for her mother.

"I realise my mam is not the only one. I just wish they would tell us what is going on," she added.

A spokeswoman for Durham County Council Social Services said: "We do have a funding problem and this is recognised by all our partners, including health trusts, health authorities and primary care groups.

"The county council has invested an additional £1.5m in the last two years into funding extra beds and yet we are still faced with delayed discharges and a funding problem."

The Department of Health has said it is committed to tackling bed-blocking. On October 9, it announced an extra £5.5m for the region, to be used to buy residential care, intensive home care and intermediate care.

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