Bed-blockers deny 150,000 hospital days to ill patients

MORE than 150,000 bed days were denied to patients awaiting treatment last year, due to cutbacks and a lack of alternative care facilities.

Patients declared fit for discharge had to be kept in hospital under a system known as bed-blocking because funding cutbacks meant they could not be sent to nursing homes or for rehabilitation.

This caused a bottleneck in the system, while 27,000 people remain on waiting lists for treatment.