A SWINDON woman says her elderly mother has been waiting in a Great Western Hos-pital ward for a nursing home place since before Christmas.

Nora Stack, 75, was admitted to the hospital on Decem-ber 14 after a fall at the Wilks House sheltered housing complex in Haydon Wick.

She suffered a broken left thigh and was operated on by surgeons at the hospital.

However, she has been waiting for a suitable place in a nursing home ever since.

Daughter Kerrin Burn, 46, explained: "At the time, I was told that my mother would spend two weeks being cared for on Kingfisher Ward before being transferred to the rehabilitation centre on the Com-monhead site, where she would be helped to recover some of her independence.

"Unfortunately she has been suffering from senile dementia which has grown worse since she was admitted to hospital.

"Her doctors have decided that she would not receive a great deal of benefit from being cared for at the rehabilitation centre."

Bakery manager Mrs Burn, who is married and has four grown up sons, agreed with this assessment.

But she was still keen to see her discharged from the hospital to a more suitable care setting and was keen to get in touch with the social worker assigned to her.

She said: "We made an appointment to see her social worker but she did not turn up and we were not given any explanation.

"It was only after three weeks that we learned she no longer worked there.

"We were eventually told that my mother was being cared for by the Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Trust.

"I am totally frustrated. We have to put our trust in the social workers and doctors looking after my mother.

"Staff at the hospital have been really good towards her and I have no complaints about the way she has been looked after.

"But I think we all agree that she needs to be somewhere more appropriate.

"I have tried to call around all the nursing homes in the area, but they are all fully booked. I think there is something seriously wrong with the whole system.

"My mother is in a bed at the hospital, through no fault of her own, which would be much better for someone who needs a hip operation, for instance."

Swindon Council's head of adult services, Ken Young, said responsibility for Mrs Stack lay with Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust.

He explained: "This is a difficult issue. I don't want to comment directly about this individual case, but with someone who has a mental health issue, their care needs can be very complex.

"We are seeing a real increase in the number of people who are suffering from dementia, possibly because people are living longer.

"I can confirm that in Nora's case, the money has been allocated, so that is not the issue. It is a matter of trying to find the most suitable care setting."

He explained that discussions were underway with various private care homes to identify more beds for the elderly mentally ill in the community.

The latest available figures reveal that the number of patients waiting to be discharged from the Great Western Hos-pital in January was 124.

The mainly elderly patients' discharges were delayed for a number of reasons, ranging from the availability of funding to awaiting assessment or placement.