TAXPAYERS have had to pay hospitals more than £200,000 in fines because of bedblocking.

Hospitals outside of Oxfordshire have used national powers to levy £120-a-day fines against Oxfordshire County Council.

The fines were introduced in 2003 in an attempt to tackle bedblocking, where a person, usually an OAP, is well enough to leave hospital, but does not.

This is regularly blamed on the county council not arranging support in the community – such as care in their home – quickly enough.

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Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show the council was fined £226,440 for 174 patients from 2011 to the end of August this year, including £5,040 for one person stuck in a bed for 42 days last year.

The council said the fines were “predominately” from Reading’s Royal Berkshire Hospital, which often takes patients from south Oxfordshire. Yet Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust said it does not fine the council.

Director of clinical services Paul Brennan said: “All organisations in Oxfordshire are committed to a greater integration of service delivery to ensure patients are treated in the environment most conducive to their care needs and therefore the trust believes that fining a partner organisation would be counterproductive.”

The county’s bedblocking rate is often cited as one of the worst in England, spurred in part by a high number of OAPs with complex health problems.

Health service managers warn it has a major knock-on effect throughout hospitals – such as in A&E – as beds are not available for others.

Yet council bosses said they were encouraged that fines had fallen from £82,320 in 2011/12 to £34,920 in 2013/14.

It said some fines for 25 patients costing £23,640 in 2014/15 were late invoices for the previous year.

Spokesman Marcus Mabberley said: “There has been a concerted effort to link better with out-of- county hospitals in recent times, which is a reason for the reduction in reimbursement charges.”

He would not comment further about the 42-day delay because of patient confidentiality, but said: “Often longer delays are caused when a person has complex needs, care for which can be difficult to secure.”

Oxford East MP Andrew Smith said: “The payments barely scratch the surface of the real cost to patients and the NHS of the failure, on the part of the county council as well as the NHS, to provide sufficient community and home care places.”

Rachel Coney, chief executive of the Healthwatch Oxfordshire official NHS and social care watchdog, called on patients to give it their views.

Snapshot surveys showed about 170 county patients were blocked at one time in the 2012/13 winter, 150 to 160 in the next winter and an average 132 from January to August.

Efforts to tackle bedblocking are led by Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group, which makes most NHS funding decisions.

Spokesman Chris Birdsall said “intensive work” is taking place to cut delays, including weekly meetings between health and council bosses.

Contact Healthwatch on hello@healthwatchoxfordshire.co.uk or 01865 520520.

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