HEALTH bosses have unveiled radical new plans to tackle the bedblocking crisis by moving patients out of hospitals into care homes.

Oxfordshire has one of the highest rates of patients who are healthy enough to go home being stranded in hospital beds because there is nowhere safe for them to be discharged to.

There are currently around 150 delayed transfer of care (dtoc) patients who cannot go home – 120 in the John Radcliffe, Horton General Hospital and Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre and 30 in community hospitals.

But health leaders have joined forces to draw up a solution to the problem by moving the delayed patients from hospitals into specially-commissioned beds at care homes.

Oxford University Hospitals Foundation Trust chief executive Dr Bruno Holthof said that the best place for these patients is not in hospital beds where they are at risk of infections and losing their mobility and independence.

He added: “We want everyone to understand it is better for patients that they are out of hospital. We will commission the capacity to make sure they are in a better setting.

“The guiding principle is patients who need to be in hospital can be admitted while patients who are better off in their own home or a care home should be treated there.”

Bed-blocking is estimated to cost the county’s health service £9m a year because of the number of beds being taken up on hospital wards.

It can cause large backlogs when high numbers of sick people need to be admitted to hospital but there are not enough beds available because current patients are not ready to be discharged.

Dr Holthof said that if patients are stuck in hospital too long they become dependent on treatment, but by moving them to intermediate care beds they can receive therapy and rehabilitation support before going home.

He added: “We are talking about very frail and old patients.

“We want to do our utmost best that they remain active and can live their daily lives again without becoming dependent on hospital care or care homes.”

The scheme has been developed with the Oxford University Hospitals Trust, Oxford Health Foundation Trust, the county council, which provides social care, and the Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (OCCG).

While the full cost of the plans has not been confirmed, OCCG has set aside £2m to move delayed patients out of hospitals.

From next month, they will be transferred to an intermediate care bed in one of 15 care homes as near to their home as possible for up to eight weeks.

Once out of hospital, the patients will be assessed to determine if they can go home with a care package or need to move into a nursing home.

Oxford Health chief executive Stuart Bell said: “We know that the clinical evidence is that for most of us, once your immediate medical needs are addressed and with appropriate ongoing health and social care support, the best bed is your own bed at home.”

Dr Holthof hopes the plans will act as a permanent solution to the problem that has dogged Oxfordshire’s health service.

He added: “This is the best plan we feel we hav,e given what the current resources are.

“The ambition is making this a sustainable solution to the problem.”

Dr Holthof stressed tackling the bed-blocking problem before the expected surge in patients this winter was a priority as soon as he took over at the trust after Sir Jonathan Michael’s retirement last month.

He added: “The concern in October was, with the winter pressure coming, this would make delayed transfers an even more acute problem for the system.

“We want to make sure people who get sick during the winter have a bed in our hospitals.”

OCCG chief executive David Smith added: “There is a need to take radical action prior to winter to improve the flow of patients in and out of our hospitals in order to manage the expected increase in hospital admissions due to winter illness affecting the elderly and those with chronic conditions.”