Bed blocking crisis: Five nursing home beds to be funded by Shropshire Council for £418,000

The council has invited "expressions of interest" for a nursing home to provide up to five "discharge to assess" beds.

The one-year council contract is worth an estimated £418,000 and is being offered in an effort to free up blocked beds at Shropshire's two main hospitals.

Councillor Lee Chapman, Shropshire Council's cabinet member for adult services, said the authority is committed to investing in adult social care, despite a continuous reduction in both local government and health funding.

He said: "Our priority in Shropshire is to ensure people can remain independent and safe and remain in their own homes for as long as possible especially when returning home from hospital.

"We know there is a national issue around delays in discharging vulnerable patients from hospital to either their home or care home.

"We particularly see this in Shropshire, where we have the additional challenges of a growing older population which is higher than the England average, being a rural county and of course seeing a continuous reduction in both local government and health funding. These pressures and demands inevitably increase during the winter months.While the council continues to face a challenging financial environment, adult social care is an area we are committed to investing in, now and in the future."

He said work is ongoing with the council, local hospitals, Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group and voluntary organisations to try to tackle the problem of bed blocking.

He said: "Both the local authority, hospital trusts and Shropshire CCG are already working together with the local independent and voluntary sector, to do everything we can to mitigate the issues around delayed discharges.

"In Shropshire we have the joint Integrated Community Services who prepare individual patients for discharge, putting in place their package of care, ahead of time to ensure there is a minimal delay in their discharge. This involves a team of carers, nurses, occupational therapists and physiotherapists who will work with the person to help them regain their skills and independence. This will usually be in their own home.

"Our remodelled Adult Social Care Brokerage system is proving successful in helping discharged patients to quickly find the right care package to help them rehabilitate at home. We are looking to extend this offer to residential care over the next few weeks.

"Also as part of our ongoing commissioning work we currently have a tender out to commission several residential beds, some of which could be used to provide rehabilitation beds for patients who are ready to be discharged from hospital.

"This relationship between health and social services, as well as GP's and the independent and voluntary sector is pivotal to ensuring that patients who are admitted to hospital only remain in beds for the time they require specialist acute care and are discharged out as soon as they are deemed safe to leave."