THE health boss who vowed to tackle bed-blocking “head-on” almost two years ago has admitted the number of delayed transfers of care is still unacceptable.

In September 2011, Dr Stephen Richards, chief executive officer of the GP-led Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (OCCG), was revealed as the leader of a taskforce set up to take on the issue.

He said then that he hoped for a “significant reduction” in bed-blocking by the end of the 2011/12 financial year and continued reductions during 2012.

But snapshot figures when the county’s hospitals were checked on March 10 this year show that 182 patients were delayed – the highest figure since February 2012.

Bed blocking happens when patients who are clinically well enough to be discharged are kept in hospital beds while social care arrangements are put in place.

Dr Richards said: “I know from the figures that it did improve to 149 in April, but I accept that is still unacceptable.

“We have been tackling it head-on, which is exactly what I said we would do. The amount of resources and work we have put in since 2011 has been enormous.

“What we are really looking to do is markedly decrease the number before we get to the winter pressure in October and November this year.”

But Dr Richards refused to take responsibility for the poor performance, saying: “It is a shared responsibility between all the parties in the county.

“I think all of us are frustrated that we have not made more progress, but we are committed to the path we are taking and do still believe what we are doing is the right thing to improve and address the problem.”

He said work had focussed so far on building a new taskforce – headed by the chief executives of the OCCG, Oxfordshire County Council, Oxford University Hospitals Trust (OUHT) and Oxford Health – to tackle the problem. However, this has not yet been fully implemented, he said.

A new discharge policy was also brought in earlier this year, which assesses patients for social care support in their homes rather than when they are still in a hospital bed.

But a report to OCCG in March said this system, although “a positive development”, had been “a major contributor” to the rise in bed blocking earlier this year, with staff having to manage two systems as the pilot was not fully implemented in all wards.

The report also said emergency departments had seen an “unprecedented” number of admissions in the first months of the year. In the week ending April 7, this caused almost a quarter of A&E patients in Oxfordshire to not be seen within four hours.

In September 2011, Dr Richards said: “If we can understand these two issues, patient flow and money flow, then we are in business.”

The report earlier this year said OCCG and the county council were undertaking further analysis of data to “better understand” what is driving demand.

Jacquie Pearce-Gervis, chairwoman of Oxfordshire watchdog Patient Voice, said: “I think it’s appalling, and what they’re doing is clearly not working.

“They made this promise to sort it all out and it’s worse than ever. These poor people are well enough to go home, but they can’t.”

Bed-blocking has been an issue since at least 2003, when the Oxford’s John Radcliffe hospital had the 13th highest number of cancelled operations in the country – 312 – because of bed shortages.

In 2005, Oxford Radcliffe Hospital Trust, which ran the county’s hospitals at the time, said there were about 90 to 100 patients blocking beds across its four sites – the JR, Churchill Hospital and Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford and the Horton Hospital in Banbury.