THREE parliamentary candidates have said their party can deliver solutions to bedblocking in Oxfordshire.

In a joint letter, National Health Action Party candidates Dr Clive Peedell, for Witney, Dr Helen Salisbury, for Oxford West and Abingdon, and Banbury candidate Roseanne Edwards said bedblocking was a “crippling effect of austerity”.

They were writing in reaction to news last week that Oxfordshire remains one of the worst areas in the country for bedblocking this year.

They said: “The problem of delayed discharge, better known as bedblocking, is a direct result of unrealistic government cuts to county councils and social care services, and greater demands on the NHS.

“Because of cash restrictions, access to nursing home or rehabilitation places is severely restricted and social services do not have the resources to get adaptations and home care organised for patients who no longer need an acute hospital bed.

“So patients are stuck in an unnecessary, expensive care setting.”

They said the problem was caused by underfunding and increasing demand for health services. They concluded: “It’s time for the main political parties to stop ignoring the obvious and to start to listen and talk to the professionals of the National Health Action Party who have clearly stated the solutions to the problems in our manifesto, starting with sufficient levels of funding for both the NHS and social care.”

An average of 141 beds a day were out of action over the 2014-15 financial year as they were taken up by patients who did not require hospital treatment.