A PATIENT was unable to be discharged from hospital because social services had no cash to clean their house.

This has been revealed as one of the reasons for 40 patients blocking beds in Worcestershire's community hospitals.

Figures for July revealed patients were waiting to leave the hospitals for places in nursing or residential homes, but were unable to do so because of a lack of funding.

But it was also revealed at a Worcestershire Community and Mental Health NHS Trust meeting yesterday that, countywide, there were on average 20 empty beds available at any one time.

Lack of funding is the principal reason for hold-ups in patients being released - with no funds to pay for house cleaning cited as one excuse.

Sue Hunt, chief executive, of Worcestershire Community and Health NHS Trust, has promised a crackdown on the bed situation.

"We are supporting the acute hospitals in ensuring intermediate and step-down care is used properly so people have acute beds," she said.

"We are monitoring the availability of beds in community hospitals because it would appear that at any one time there are at least 20 empty beds in Worcestershire, which rises to 30 at times.

"I find it difficult to understand how we can be supporting the acute hospitals if we have got 27, as of today, empty beds.

"We are trying to find out why the beds are not being accessed."

According to Trust statistics for July, there were 11 patients waiting to be discharged at Evesham, five at Newtown Hospital, seven at Pershore, 16 at Bromsgrove, one at Kidderminster and six at Lucy Baldwin Hospital in Stourport-on-Severn.