I WAS delighted to read in last Friday's Advertiser that the number of beds at soon to be opened Great Western Hospital is due to be increased by a further 72 beds next year.

I was however, dismayed to see the delayed discharge of patients referred to in your report by the derogatory term of "bed blocking".

This is a quick and easy sound bite, but for those whose discharges are delayed, most of whom are over 65, it is demeaning.

The term implies that they are somehow malingering and they have no right to be in hospital.

As Sonia Mills says these patients are waiting for places elsewhere in either social care or the NHS and it is they who are being let down.

So can I make a plea on behalf of these patients that we get rid of the insulting term of "bed blocking" from our thoughts and language.

Phil Beaumont

Non Executive Director

Swindon Primary Care Trust

Older Peoples' Champion for Swindon PCT

Shrivenham Road

Highworth