HOSPITAL staff have raised concerns there is a growing number of frail, elderly patients unable to be discharged due to a social care system which is "stretched to the limit."

Last weekend, Furness General Hospital (FGH) and Lancaster's Royal Infirmary pleaded with the public to find alternative healthcare services as they struggled to cope with "occupational pressures."

Paul Grout, deputy medical director and site lead for FGH said: "At the start of the week we were worried that we were short on beds in the hospital, and we've been running with that for a while but it was really bad on Friday.

"We had patients with Norovirus on the wards and couldn't open escalation beds because we didn't have enough staff.

"We were asking families to help us and where possible care for loved ones at home.

"We are not trying to offload people but some families are quite happy to and do provide that support.

"It can be safer with frail, elderly people as hospital is an environment that's not their home and can put them at greater risk of falls and pneumonia."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Furness General Hospital A&E is currently extremely busy. Please only visit for life-threatening emergencies. <a href="https://t.co/ce37YQBc9y">pic.twitter.com/ce37YQBc9y</a></p>— MorecambeBayNHSTrust (@UHMBT) <a href="https://twitter.com/UHMBT/status/911626272362680320">September 23, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Dr Grout raised concerns over the rising number of elderly patients he treats who are unable to go home until a care package has been organised by a social worker.

"They often require more help when they go home such as carers, meals on wheels, but the system is stretched to the limit so if families are there and available to support that would be helpful," he added.

The doctor has been a member of the FGH team for 12 years and says he has seen the number of frail, elderly patients with complex needs increase significantly.

He said: "Another big problem we have is with people who need to go to nursing homes as there's not enough spaces here, and especially for those with dementia.

"That's not something we can fix overnight.

"We are working closer with partner agencies to keep more patients in the community and there are lots of good, interesting projects going on which are trying to integrate care much more closely."

The hospital have implemented a range of new measures to help discharge elderly patients quickly and safely.

One trial involves the hospital's own social workers organising care plans and providing assistance until County Council staff can have the official plans approved. Dr Grout said so far this had been "very successful" in freeing up beds.

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Cumbria County Council's response:

Councillor Peter Thornton, Cumbria County Council's health and care services chief said: "It's no secret that social care is provided by the private sector and getting a free service like NHS hospital care and means tested care for people outside of hospital to work side by side without any delays is very difficult.

"Recruitment into care roles for these companies is also not easy and that means sometimes we have capacity issues in the county.

"The gold standard of care is to be able to keep people well and out of hospital in the first place and there is a lot of work going on around that at the moment."

What is being done to help?

Cumbria County Council have implemented the following schemes:

Discharge to Assess – ASC and re-ablement are involved in a scheme for a person to be discharged from hospital before the level of support is completely determined.

People are able to cope in a very different way in their own home, when compared to how they manage in hospital, so assessing them in their own home means that someone gets the appropriate level of support that is required.

Integrated Discharge Team – Different professionals such as OT, Physio’s, Nurses, social workers – from different organisations (Adult social care, community partnership trust and Morecambe bay) are now working in a more integrated way to form a multi-disciplinary team, this team discusses and provides the correct service and level of support for individuals on discharge.

ARCH Project – Adult Social Care OTs in conjunction with health colleagues are leading a project with an aim to increase care capacity and flexibility in the community. This is through risk assessment looking at an individual’s support needs, appropriate equipment, carer ratio and time required to safely meet an individual’s need. This will maximise care capacity in the community and so reduce length of hospital stay by ensuring care is available on hospital discharge without compromising the level of care and safety of the individuals and care staff.

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Where can I find help other than A&E?

Self-Care - a well-stocked medicine cabinet can help with most minor cuts and infections such as diarrhoea, colds, flu and headaches, but seek advice if worried.

Community Pharmacy - have fully trained health professionals who will provide quality healthcare advice (a full list with opening hours is available on NHS Choices via www.nhs.uk

GP Surgery - if you have an illness or injury that won’t go away.

Out-of-hours GP service - If you urgently need GP assistance over the festive bank holidays and weekends call Cumbria Health on Call (CHoC) on 03000 247 247 (Urgent appointments are for patients whose health may deteriorate if they have to wait longer than 24 hours to see a GP or nurse practitioner and not for routine repeat prescriptions).

Minor Injury Units or Primary Care Assessment Services - are for treating minor injuries and illnesses.

Public advised to stay away from A&E as it faces "difficult circumstances" and "operational pressures"