SOCIAL services chiefs in Swindon have been handed £145,000 to prepare for controversial fines for delayed discharge of patients from hospital.

From January, the council will be hit with government fines of up to £100 for each night a patient is forced to stay on a ward unnecessarily.

Swindon has been given the £145,000 to stop mainly elderly people staying in hospital when they are fit to be discharged.

Head of Swindon social services, Jerry Oliver said: "The issue of delayed discharges, nationally, is a significant problem for the government which is why they have launched this system.

"It is important to point out that not all delayed discharges are down to the council, it is a shame that the government has decided to tackle the issue by imposing fines."

Swindon Borough Coun-cil is the best performing local authority in the South West with regard to delayed discharges. At the end of March, the council met its target of having no more than 11 patients delayed at hospital each day reducing the average figure from 30.

But now the council's social services department has been told it must not have any patients waiting for discharge by January 1, or face fines under the new Community Care (delayed discharges) bill.

The new law has provoked protests from councils, opposition MPs, Help the Aged and peers in the House of Lords, who argue it will undermine the relationship between hospitals and social services.

Announcing the cash, health minister Jacqui Smith insisted the new system was not being set up to penalise local councils.

Wiltshire County Coun-cil will receive £371,000 from a £50 million fund. The cash is likely to reach councils in the autumn.

At present, the NHS picks up the bill for patients who are fit to leave hospital but have nowhere else to go.

So-called bed blocking is also forcing up waiting lists, because operations have to be cancelled when no beds are available.

One of Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust directors, Paul Bentley, said: "If the introduction of this new system of working provides additional facilities for people who need them, we welcome its introduction."

Most recent figures from Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust reveal that in March, 1,587 bed days were due to delayed discharges. In February, the figure was 1,538. At midnight, the number of beds occupied by patients whose discharge has been delayed are recorded. These bed days are compiled and released as monthly figures.

The latest available figures reveal the number of patients waiting to be discharged from the Great Western Hospital was 124 in January. The reason for their discharge ranged from the availability of funding to the awaiting assessment or placement.