I've beds to spare

Clive Crouch, owner of Stonebow House, at Peopleton, said four of his 27 beds lay empty because social services staff were unable to transfer clients from hospital.

"Leaving them in a hospital bed costs up to £1,200 a week, but if they were in a residential home it would be between £280 and £300 a week, or £365 and £400 for a place in a nursing home," said Mr Crouch, whose rest home was once owned by the family of Newsnight anchorman Jeremy Paxman.

"Taxpayers' money is being squandered. It's ludicrous."

Mid-Worcestershire MP Peter Luff claimed the situation was being worsened because of a bed-blocking crisis in Birmingham.

"Bed-blocking in Birmingham means people are being brought from outside Worcestershire into hospitals such as Worcester and the Alexandra," he claimed, adding he had raised his concerns with the chairman of the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, Harold Musgrove.

"I think there's a danger the Government's plans for the health service could be undermined," he said.

A Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust spokeswoman said the Trust was dealing with 56 bed-blockers.

She said this figure comprised people waiting for health authority funding as well as social services placements, and patients needing to transfer between hospitals.

"One or two people have been delayed transfers to the QE in Birmingham because of the problems in Birmingham, but we haven't had to accept people from there," she added.

A Worcestershire County Council spokesman said 40 patients in hospitals were waiting last week for social services to find places in care homes.

"The maximum amount allocated in the social services budget is being spent each week to move patients into care," he insisted.

"The council's doing all it can to make sure the problem of bed-blocking will not affect Worcestershire in the way other health authorities in the West Midlands have been affected."