BEDBLOCKING in Oxfordshire’s hospitals has got drastically worse in the past six months, new figures show.

The Department of Health figures put the number of patients who were well enough to go home but couldn’t because the correct care was not in place for them, at 129 on one day in May – up from 89 in December.

The figures showed the number of days people were stuck in hospital was 4,012 days last month, compared to 3,077 days six months previously.

Yet Arash Fatemian, the county councillor responsible for social care, who six months ago pledged an improvement, disputed that bedblocking was getting worse in the county.

He told the Oxford Mail last night there had been a ‘downward trend’ in the number of people according to internal Oxfordshire County Council figures, but a power cut that hit the city yesterday meant he could not produce them.

Mr Fatemian said the number of lost days was not a good guage of the situation because it was more important patients got more suitable care after hospital, and this took longer to arrange.

The Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust did not dispute the DoH figures.

The DoH now places Oxfordshire as the second worst county in the country, behind only Birmingham.

Mr Fatemian said: “Our own internal data, which I closely monitor on a weekly basis, has seen an almost continuous downward trend, and I expect it to continue to do so.”

When December’s figures were published, Mr Fatemian predicted Oxfordshire would have “moved significantly” up the bedblocking league in six months.

He continued: “My concern is to make sure we are focusing on better outcomes for people.

“While every delay is regrettable, it is better for us to improve the outcome for that person, so that they are less likely to need care in the future.”

But ORH director of clinical services Paul Brennan, said: “(Since winter), the number of delayed patients has not reduced in the way we would have hoped, and we are having to keep open additional beds to cope with this, which has a detrimental effect on our finances.”

The trust estimates bedblocking costs it at least £3.3m a year.

Primary care trust NHS Oxfordshire said it was “committed to tackling” the problem.

Spokesman Cariad Hazard said the PCT was working with the county council to streamline the system and speed up decision making.

liam.sloan@oxfordmail.co.uk