FEARS for Bolton’s elderly patients have been raised over plans to get them home from hospital quicker.

Christine Howarth from the Bolton Save Our NHS Group has told health bosses that negative statements about long-term hospital bed stays for the elderly is causing unnecessary distress.

Speaking at the NHS Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG Friday board meeting, she said there were fears they would not be able to provide adequate home care for patients discharged from hospital because of limited funding from the Government.

She said: “I am happy about your objectives and what you are trying to achieve but I have no confidence about the benefit to patients.

“You do not have an adequate budget and I don’t think it stacks up. I am one of many reading reports who feels a lack of confidence.”

A Home First campaign has been launched in Bolton encouraging patients to remain active and speed up discharges.

Part of the campaign has seen visitors to Royal Bolton Hospital warned that 10 days of bed rest for a person aged 80 and over ages their muscles by 10 years.

However, Mrs Howarth said other health care professionals had dismissed the claim as “misleading” and called for it to be “urgently removed” from campaign material.

She added that there were concerns over the national push to cut hospital bed numbers and quality of home care, as well as the funding and timescales in the Bolton plans for the Discharge to Access scheme.

The scheme is due to be piloted in September and October, before it is rolled out from November to March.

It aims to cut the number of older patients in hospital who require ongoing treatment but can receive it in their own home or care facility – where it is believed they will recover faster and have less chance of a readmission.

Bolton CCG reported that Royal Bolton has a high number of these patients, up to 60 at any one point in time.

The scheme will see them assessed in the hospital and their home prepared for their needs, before being transferred out of the hospital.

A home-based assessment will then take place within two hours to make sure they are being provided with the right care. The support service can last up to six weeks, but it is expected 40 per cent of people will be on a care package for no more than two weeks.

Around 30 percent of all hospital patients may go through the scheme.

Bolton CCG chairman Dr Wirin Bhatiani said the scheme had already been implemented successfully in other areas, including Wigan, and the pilot was essential to make sure it worked for Bolton patients.

He added: “We have to have assurance ourselves that this is for the right reasons and the board members will be held accountable if this does not work out.

“If you ask me today do I have confidence I would say not yet. I need to see the evidence first.

“For the NHS to ask for more money is the right thing to do but we need to get our own house in order first. There is still waste in the NHS.

“Lots of things need to work but we need to get to get a confidence and trust out there as well.”