BED-BLOCKING at York District Hospital has been pulled back from crisis point.

But health chiefs have warned that unless long-term measures are put in place, the problem will continue to seriously affect the running of the hospital.

There are currently 55 delayed discharges at the hospital, down from 65 last week, after health and social services staff met to discuss the worsening situation.

City of York Council pulled out all the stops to match patients from acute wards with available care home places.

But Susan Acott, operational services director with York Health Services NHS Trust, said temporary measures could not be sustained long term and strategic solutions were needed.

Trust chief executive Simon Pleydell said that the safe running of the hospital was at stake.

He said: "If we get into autumn months and we haven't made any progress there will be serious concern about our ability to keep elective work going and continue with admissions.

"The critical time will be the end of September and early October, that's when we draw together our winter plans and get ready for winter."

Discussions are now in place with the Selby and York Primary Care Trust, the strategic health authority and City of York Council after a team from the Department of Health and Social Services inspectorate suggested a number of improvements.

Advice included improved communication between all the organisations, the creation of halfway houses where patients could be housed until appropriate accommodation can be arranged and extra home care teams so more patients could remain at home with 24-hour care.

Ms Acott said it would mean big changes in procedures and in the culture of the hospital, but could be worth it. She said: "This is the first significant drop in a rising trend for a few months so it is good news because it was up to 65 at one point last week.

"As long as we can keep having dialogue with social services then it will come down, but it will have to come down by at least another ten."

Gary Britton, commissioning and contracts manager with City of York Council, said: "As fast as we manage to find places, people come back into the system at the other end."

Updated: 14:50 Wednesday, July 31, 2002