NORTH-WEST NHS patients are spending up to seven months in hospital unnecessarily as bed-blocking cases continue to spiral, a Daily Post investigation can reveal.

The patients, often elderly, are forced to stay in hospital because care packages from councils are not yet in place for them to be discharged.

We reported a year ago that 10,000 bed days a year were being lost due to blocking – a figure which has now leapt to 27,500. In 2003, the Government told hospitals to fine councils £100 a day for “delayed discharge” cases, and as a result Merseyside and Cheshire authorities are paying out hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation.

Chair of the Patient Association, Roswyn Hakesley-Brown, said: “No person should be in hospital this long unnecessarily.

“It has a huge physical and emotional effect on the patient, on their families and also on the health economy.

“It usually effects older people because care packages are not ready for them and this is not right.

“Agencies do not talk to each other as much as they should – it is a very complex issue.”

The longest case of delayed discharge we found, through Freedom of Information legislation, was seven months and four days (221 days) at North Cheshire Hospitals Trust, which includes Warrington and Halton Hospitals.

A spokesman said this was due to the complexity of the individual case, and the patient being split between acute and intermediate care.

Locally, the Countess of Chester hospital had the highest total bed-blocking figure for 2008, with 6,841 bed days lost, while Aintree Hospital’s figure stood at 5,580 and the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen Hospitals at 3,599.

Arrowe Park Hospital lost 4,247 days – and Wirral council has been billed more than £200,000 for the bed blocking, of which £49,800 has been paid.

Arrowe Park’s longest individual case was 94 days, due to housing issues with the patient. The Trust says the number of lost bed days has still reduced by 32.6% from the previous year.

The Royal Liverpool Hospital has introduced a range of improvements to the discharge process, but admits some patients still suffer “significant delays”.

Diane Wake, executive director of nursing and patient quality, said: “There is a core group of patients who experience more significant delays and that is because their discharge is more complex.

“We have a duty of care to ensure our patients have the right care package in place to care for them when they leave hospital.

“We work closely with social services, who put these arrangements in place, to ensure this is available from the moment someone is discharged.”

Social services departments in both Liverpool and Wirral councils say they have seen improvements in their delayed discharge figures.

Since April, Liverpool City Council has paid £113,000 in fines, a reduction on the previous two years.

A council spokesman said: “We have been working hard with our health partners to reduce delayed discharges and the number of cases has dropped significantly over the last few years, down from 27 per week to 17 since 2006.

“Of these, nine are related to social care and the average delay is six days.

“We have introduced a new system this year where people can be discharged into residential or nursing homes if the care package they need is not in place, and £3m is being invested this winter in making sure people can leave hospital safely as soon as they are fit to do so.

“The delayed discharge grant is used to pay for more staff and further reduce the amount of people affected, so it is not lost from the health and social care system.