A Shropshire campaigner has made renewed calls for an investigation to be carried out into bed blocking at community hospitals in the county.

Councillor Peter Phillips, South Shropshire District Council member for Bishop’s Castle with Onny Valley, said not enough money was going into social care in south Shropshire and Bridgnorth.

The county’s Tory leaders have already said they are doing all they can to help elderly people who need care in their homes.

They have accepted that a shortfall in funding has led to some patients having to stay longer than is necessary in Bishop’s Castle Community Hospital and Ludlow Community Hospital.

However, Councillor Phillips, a Liberal Democrat, said more action was needed because too many things were going wrong.

“The turmoil surrounding Tory Shropshire’s care of the elderly continues with bed blocking in community hospitals, failures in home care provision and a damning inspection of the procedures at Four Rivers Care Home in Ludlow,” he said.

“The Tories’ record on elderly care is appallingly consistent – it’s shocking. The fundamental reason is a budget this year which is lower than was actually spent last year.”

Councillor Phillips said his investigations had shown patients had been stuck on hospital wards for up to four months.

However, the leader of Shropshire County Council accused Councillor Phillips of “playing politics”.

Councillor Malcolm Pate said: “We did have a slight problem but we invested £600,000 of extra money into the system and this has now been resolved.”