VITAL bed spaces at Princess Margaret Hospital could be taken up by elderly people, because cash-strapped Wiltshire Social Services cannot afford places for them in residential homes.
Wiltshire Social Services, which is struggling with a £1.5 million debt, predicts the number of patients occupying acute beds throughout Wiltshire will spiral from 60 to 165 over the Winter.
But Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust chief executive Sonia Mills has demanded that action is taken to avert the looming crisis which threatens to paralyse services at the hospital.
At the trust's monthly meeting yesterday She said: "I am concerned that Wiltshire Social Services have looked forward to the year end and are taking the view that they can't meet the demand on residential home places."
She said the predicted rise in the number of patients blocking acute beds would: "put the emergency and elective surgery plans that we have worked on out of the window. It will be unsustainable."
She told the meeting that she will be seeking a face to face meeting with the director of Wiltshire Social Services Dr Ray Jones to find a way to resolve the problem.
Dr Jones said: "The figures in the report are based on the continuing demand on social services for more and more care beds for elderly people.
"Despite the fact that we have put half a million pounds more into social services this year, we are still finding that demand is outstripping funding."
The problem had been exacerbated by the fact that there is a growing elderly population which is placing increasing demands on the social services.
He said the solution to the problem would be the creation of alternative services in partnership with the Health Service.
He added that the problem reflected the new Government emphasis on caring for people in their own homes and boosting the numbers of intermediate care beds in the community, instead of investing in long-term care places for the elderly.
He added: "The health service was given funding in the early summer that was to help fund more intermediate beds.
"And in Wiltshire £600,000 was made available to tackle winter pressures.
"I am eager to see that money spent on providing more intermediate care facilities and increased rehabilitation services."
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