Princess Margaret Hospital's bid to cut waiting lists is being frustrated by a lack of care spaces for vulnerable patients.
Figures due to be discussed at tomorrow's Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust board meeting reveal that at the end of September, 30 patients awaiting discharge were taking up acute beds needed for other patients.
In most cases the patients whose discharge had been delayed were vulnerable elderly people who had recovered sufficiently to leave the hospital, but were not well enough to return home.
They were forced to wait for funding, assessment and placement by social services or mental health services.
The number of days when a bed was effectively blocked last month was 1,855, the equivalent of 63 beds.
This limits the Trust's ability to cut waiting lists, with 5,275 patients currently awaiting elective surgery. In addition more than 200 people had to be cared for on hospital trolleys instead of proper beds last month.
Councillor Dr Owen Lister (Conservative, Abbey Meads) said:
"I am afraid that it all boils down to money.
If we continue to pay care home owners such a pitiful amount, it is little wonder that they decide to sell up and move to Spain.
I would do just the same in their position. Many of them are making a loss week after week.
The story is the same for mental health beds.
The mental health unit at Sandalwood Court has 50 beds, 38 for voluntary admissions and of the remaining 12 just four are allocated to Swindon.
The Labour Government insist on putting people with mental illness into the community."
He added that the provision for people in Swindon was half the level of beds recommended by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, which suggests more than 100 beds for a population of 300,000.
The Trust still plans to move about 100 administration staff from the town's new £132 Great Western Hospital to temporary accommodation to make way for more beds.
It also plans to build a further extension to the east of the hospital site at Common-head in the long term.
Partially funded through private finance, the new hospital will have a capacity of 464 inpatient beds and 87-day case beds when it opens next month.
It will have 19 per cent more clinical floor space than Princess Margaret Hospital and will be supported by a 60-bed rehabilitation unit.
Taken From The Evening Advertiser 24/10/02