A WINTER crisis could be looming on York District Hospital's wards, as latest figures show bed blocking levels are running at a higher level than the same time last year.

More than 50 people are currently well enough to leave the hospital but are unable to be transferred - way above the end-of-year target of 19.

A number of patients have been waiting on acute wards for more than 150 days, with one delayed for almost 300 days.

Delays are caused by a lack of nursing and residential home places, or the patient may be unhappy with the places available.

Despite efforts from staff at the hospital, City of York Council and the Selby and York Primary Care Trust to reduce the number of delayed discharges, the number has remained above 50 for the past few months - and time is running out. Simon Pleydell, chief executive of York Health Services NHS Trust, said that during the winter months admissions increase and even more pressure is put on the organisation. This pressure is increased further when beds are blocked.

Mr Pleydell said: "I will feel much more confident about it when the figure drops below 50.

"It is beginning to put the organisations under pressure because the volume of emergency admissions is going up. We know that we have got to make progress on this in the next month or so and to be candid, this time last year we were beginning to make a reduction. Now we are ten above where we were this time last year."

Mr Pleydell said some impact had been made because the number of admissions had increased, but the number of delayed discharges had remained constant. He said that unless the number of blocked beds was reduced rapidly services could be affected.

An increase in emergency admissions over the past few weeks has already forced the delay of elective surgery, leaving seven patients waiting more than a year for elective in-patient surgery - a situation exacerbated by delayed discharges.

Mr Pleydell said that the target of having no one waiting more than 12 months for surgery had been achieved throughout the year, but was put under pressure by recent increased demand.

He said: "When the pressure's on us, something has to give somewhere. Those in emergency care and those who need urgent surgery, they get in first."

Rob Hurren, assistant director of adult services at City of York Council, said: "The hospital is under a lot of pressure in terms of admissions. The number has gone up by ten to 15 per cent since April.

"We are doing everything we can to place people and reduce the numbers and there's still the confidence that we can reach our target.

"But we are trying to understand why more people are coming into the hospital so we can break the cycle."

Updated: 09:35 Tuesday, October 29, 2002