THE ‘terrible’ state of bed blocking at Wythenshawe hospital has been laid bare by startling new figures, revealing a ‘care crisis’ for patients across Trafford, according to campaigners.

The number of wasted bed days in January at University Hospital South Manchester UHSM was 1,182.

Compared to a figure of just 75 in August 2010, it equates to an increase of 1,476 per cent.

As revealed by Messenger, healthy patients are facing delayed discharges from the facility because of the high costs of nursing homes in the borough and the lack of ongoing community care.

The hospital has seen a surge in patients from Trafford since the downgrading of acute services at Trafford General under the ‘new deal’ plan.

“These terrible figures show the scale of the care crisis that is affecting the most vulnerable people in Stretford and Urmston,” said Stretford and Urmston MP Kate Green.

“Increasing numbers of elderly people in our community are ending up stuck in hospital, rather than receiving the proper support they need in their own home."

Urmston councillor Joanne Harding said the situation was leading to winter pressures becoming a year-round problem.

“What’s happened to integrated care? The whole premise of the downgrading of Trafford was that integrated care would be there to prevent this," she said.

“People are being admitted because they’re clinically unwell, but then when they’re fit to go out there’s a big gap. There’s nothing there for them.

“Wythenshawe can’t cope with the extra capacity. It’s struggling.

“If you’ve got all those people taking up beds in Wythenshawe and someone is booked in to have an operation that operation will be cancelled because there is no bed to put them in. It’s a domino effect.

Cllr Harding encouraged people to use Trafford General’s urgent care and walk-in centres, of which the latter has seen an increase in patients.

A spokesman for UHSM confirmed the January figures for Wythenshawe and said delayed discharges had since begun to ease.

They said: “UHSM is working closely with local authority, CCG and social care colleagues in Trafford, Manchester and Stockport to ensure that we do not have significant delays in discharging our patients back to their own homes, or residential and nursing homes.

“Whilst there are occasional challenges – these figures relate to January 2015 when the Trust was experiencing unprecedented demand on its services – we are very happy with the support that colleagues have been able to provide.”

Labour's national figures indicate:-

The number of delayed days per month has almost doubled under the current Government – from 55,332 in August 2010 to 103,776 in January 2015.

During the past year there have been more than a million delayed days, costing almost £287 million.

That’s enough to pay for 6,875 nurses or a year of home visits for more than 41,000 older and disabled people.