THE management of Swindon's Great Western Hospital is doing all it can to avoid fines being slapped on the council.

"We would rather work with our partners and spend money trying to solve the problem, instead of taking a heavy-handed approach," said hospital spokesman Chris Birdsall.

Already more social workers have been deployed on the wards.

"In essence, we're trying to get ahead of the game by looking at a patient's discharge requirements much earlier than in the past," explained Mr Birdsall.

"By working more closely with the council, we're able to spot problems well in advance concerning where a patient will go when discharged.

"Streamlining the process helps us to keep log-jams to a minimum."

However, he warned that the Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust still retained the sanction of imposing fines if it felt that the council was not keeping its part of the bargain.