TWO thirds of the beds in Pershore Cottage Hospital are being blocked by elderly people waiting for nursing home places to be funded by Worcestershire Health Authority and Social Services.

Dr Glenn Ralphs of Abbotswood Medical Centre said 11 or 12 of the 18 beds at Pershore are filled with people who need to move into more suitable care but there is no money available to pay for them.

He said: "This causes major problems because the cottage hospital is at the forefront of the community care strategy. It doesn't help Worcester Royal Infirmary because they can't move people post operatively to Pershore so it all backs up.

"I can't see a short-term answer to the problem. It all comes down to money and no one has any. More patients end up being funded by social services than the health authority but neither of them have any money and I am not sure where they are going to get any from. We keep being promised it but it just seems to get swallowed up."

The situation at Pershore is revealed a week after Harold Musgrove, Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust chairman, which runs Ronkswood, the Alexandra and Kidderminster hospitals, called on social services to take immediate action after it was revealed there are 33 bedblockers in acute hospitals.

Mr Musgrove spoke out after hearing from clinicians that 33 people have been assessed as medically fit to be discharged to more appropriate care, but who are having to remain in acute hospital beds because social services says it cannot afford to move them.

He said: "If we had those 33 beds available last Wednesday evening, we would have been able to prevent patients waiting an unnecessary length of time in the accident and emergency department because a bed was not immediately available."

Worcestershire County Council has been allocated extra cash to ease this pressure and is currently considering allocating £1 million from reserves to ensure elderly people can be moved more quickly.

County council leader Carol Warren said: "I understand the acute services review is placing a lot of pressure on Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust and I would like to do what I can to help relieve some of the pressures. However, there is a limit to what I can do.

"I can confirm we are today looking at whether we can increase the number of weekly placements which will go some way to relieving the pressure on acute beds.