THERE are some problems that just do not seem to go away. And bedblocking is one of Oxfordshire’s worst examples.

We keep hearing high-level assurances that the problem will be improved.

Indeed, the Oxford Mail has given a significant amount of space over the past year to experts explaining how the problem would be solved.

On the face of it, the bedblocking issue does not perhaps appear a particularly exciting type of story.

Indeed, it mostly involves faceless pensioners, with relatively minor health complaints, stuck in hospital beds.

But the real story is a heartbreaking one of someone’s elderly relative forced to spend their time in a clinical environment when they could be at home, with appropriate support.

It is also a story of wasted resources, needless bureaucracy and incomprehensible inefficiency.

For all these reasons, the Oxford Mail will not stop reporting on this issue until it is sorted out.

Last November patients spent 5,327 days in the county’s hospital beds when they could have gone home.

And Dr Stephen Richards – the man responsible for sorting out the problem – said we would have seen “real progress” by March this year.

But rather than that “real progress”, the figures show 6,332 days were lost to bedblockers that month.

Perennial problems are often swept under the carpet, as people get bored of them.

But we are determined that will not happen in this case.

After all, the taxpayer does not get a discount when services are not delivered as promised.