IT’S not often you that you hear the words “hanging our heads in shame” from someone senior in the NHS.

Year after year, the county’s health authorities have failed to get on top of the bed-blocking problem.

Our MPs rightly say it’s unaccaptable and that for every two steps forward there have been two steps back.

We hope the £10m bid to help tackle the winter pressures on Oxfordshire’s hospitals is a success.

It is a lot of money and could go some way to helping alleviate the situation.

The problem is, we have no idea what this money will go on.

We could speculate it is for more beds or perhaps more staff. But why should the public have to guess?

Why is the Oxfordshire Clinical Commissing Group being so tight-lipped about what the money would go on?

It is hugely disappointing that given the opportunity to explain how it plans on tackling this issue, the OCCG declined.

The key word in the NHS is “service”.

The OCCG’s efforts to solve the bed blocking problem cannot be taken seriously until they are clear and open about how they intend to do it.