THE leader of Oxfordshire County Council last night admitted Oxfordshire’s social care system was “just about bust”.

Keith Mitchell expressed sympathy for an Alzheimer’s sufferer who became a victim of the county’s bed-blocking crisis after he was stuck in a hospital ward for 12 weeks despite being fit enough to go home.

Mr Mitchell spoke out after the Oxford Mail highlighted how 78-year-old Peter Maudling, from Bicester, was twice confined to a John Radcliffe Hospital bed for weeks on end as he waited for social services to draw up new care plans.

He said: “I acknowledge that financially, it makes no sense for long stays in hospital that cost more than social care, but if we don’t have the funding to purchase that care immediately we are all in difficulty.

“We are working hard with the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust to identify how we can reduce delays, and will do all we can to find social care places for people in the highest need.

“But we are trying to operate a system that is just about bust and we have to work out how to improve it and secure more funding as we have more elderly people.”

Across Oxfordshire in June, patients fit to leave hospital spent a total of 3,648 days trapped in their beds, compared to 4,012 days in May.

The county is the second worst for bed-blocking out of 153 local authority areas, June figures show.

We reported yesterday how a 36-bed John Radcliffe ward had been opened for patients who are ready to be discharged, but have nowhere to go. The bed-blocking problem is costing Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals £3.3m a year at a time it must find £52m of savings in this year alone.

Meanwhile, Oxfordshire County Council is cutting £119m from its budget over four years.

Last night it emerged the Department of Health had allocated £1.5m to the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, while another £5.8m had been allocated to help with “health and social care issues”.

Sonia Mills, Chief executive of NHS Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire cluster, said: “This is a really positive move forward for Oxfordshire.

“We are working in partnership with all local health providers and have a firm commitment to address the issues of delayed transfers of care.

“We have already identified how £4m can be spent and are working with our colleagues in the health service and at the county council to improve things further”.

Mr Mitchell added: “I have great sympathy for anyone caring for a family member with Alzheimer’s.

“My partner and I have seen, first, my father, and later, her mother, succumb to this dreadful disease and I know how difficult it is to secure care. I regret that there is just not enough money to manage the flow of patients in either the health or local Government system.”