Senior managers at Oxfordshire's major hospitals could set up their own community hospital to get growing numbers of 'bed blockers' out of wards.

The Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, responsible for Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital, Churchill Hospital, and Radcliffe Infirmary, and The Horton, Banbury, claims about 95 beds are taken up by people who need to go elsewhere for further care.

About 44 per cent of these patients are waiting for rehabilitation at one of Oxfordshire's nine community hospitals, run by the county's primary care trusts, while 20 per cent need a social services nursing home place or care package allowing them to return to their own home.

Seven per cent need a joint NHS and Social Services home care package before they can be discharged, and the remainder are still deciding what type of care they want when they leave.

ORH chief executive Trevor Campbell Davis said although it was not his trust's responsibility to deal with delayed discharges, an onsite community hospital seemed to be a way of dealing with the problem.

He added: "These patients shouldn't be in an acute setting and I don't want my staff having to deal with the problem, but unfortunately the people who should be dealing with it don't seem to be doing anything.

"We're looking at the possibility of opening alternative accommodation of our own and running it ourselves. This does beg a number of questions, most of all -- who would pay for it?

"But given the challenge we're facing at the moment, we are looking at that."

Delayed discharges prevent new patients from being admitted and in recent months ORH staff have warned that bed shortages could lead to breaches in casualty waiting times.

At the moment, the trust is only just reaching the Government's target requiring at least 98 per cent of patients to be seen, admitted or discharged within four hours.

Speaking on behalf of all Oxfordshire's PCTs, a spokesman for South West and South East Oxfordshire PCTs said almost 20 per cent of the county's 243 community hospital beds were currently blocked by patients waiting to be discharged.

She said: "Since Sunday, there have been 48 delayed discharges, and 34 are waiting for social services care -- the majority of whom will be dealing with Oxfordshire Social Services.

"We are, however, trying to work as a system. Because social services is at the end of the chain, they get the knock-on affects.

"The whole system has pressures and it's about working together to find the best solutions for patients."

An Oxfordshire Social Services spokesman said: "We're continuing to work closely with our NHS colleagues to keep the figures as low as possible. The council is spending more money than ever on placements in nursing homes and intensive support for people in their homes.

"However, the number of patients admitted to the ORH since April has gone up 10 per cent over the same period last year. The more people admitted to hospital, the harder it is to avoid delays in discharging them."