An investigation has uncovered a link between “rock bottom” care home fees and bed blocking in Hywel Dda University Health Board area hospitals.

The research was conducted by social care champions Care Forum Wales (CFW), who say that elderly people who should be in care homes are taking up desperately needed beds and “creating an even worse crisis in an already beleaguered NHS”.

According to CFW, who represent around 500 independent providers, the study discovered that the Health Board areas with the highest rates of patients awaiting discharge were those where local authorities paid the least for care.

The Health Boards with the highest rates of patients awaiting discharge to a care home are Betsi Cadwaladr in North Wales and Hywel Dda in South West Wales, both hovering around the 70 per cent mark.

Care Forum Wales Chair Mario Kreft MBE has written to Senedd Members drawing their attention to the report.

He said: “It shows there is a strong correlation between inadequate fees and high levels of delayed hospital discharges.

“That is affecting not only those individuals who need to be cared for in a more appropriate environment, but those with acute medical conditions waiting for vacant beds.

“Local authorities are protecting budgets at the expense of keeping people in hospital.

“At the same hospitals where these beds are being blocked there are lengthening queues of ambulances outside, waiting to discharge patients. These patients who are bed blocking can be safely placed in care homes.

“In those queuing ambulances people are dying while they wait for a bed in a hospital to become free.

“It’s the simple joining of the dots and if we are to become serious about getting people out of hospital and into the appropriate care setting then we need to have a different mindset to this budget-driven nonsense.

“Local authorities are protecting their budgets at the expense of people’s lives – it makes no sense to have a system like that.

“The result is elderly people are unnecessarily staying in a hospital bed at a cost of £500 a day to the public purse while there are many available beds in care homes for less than £200 a day.

“It needs to be radically reformed but no-one in Wales seems to be able to make that decision.

“We fear there will be many more care home closures and redundancies from April, when the UK Government is set to increase employer National Insurance Contributions in what amounts to a tax on people’s care.

“This could mean the number of available beds decreasing. Social care is the solution to the NHS crisis and should be protected.

“We are calling for immediate action to avoid redundancies and closures of the vital care home and domiciliary care services underpinning the NHS.”

CFW’s league table showing how much local authorities pay for care, five of North Wales counties are in the bottom six places showing the lowest payers.

According to CFW, it is no coincidence that two of those authorities, Gwynedd and Anglesey, over 80 per cent of bed blockers are waiting for places in care homes.

Just above them and firmly in the bottom half of payers are Neath Port Talbot, Swansea and Carmarthenshire where care home bed blockers account for over three-quarters of the patients awaiting discharge.

In contrast in the Aneurin Bevan Health Board area fewer than 18 per cent of patients awaiting discharge are going to care homes and three of their five local authorities, Newport, Torfaen and Blaenau Gwent, are in the top five care home fee-payers.

Cardiff, first, and Vale of Glamorgan, seventh, are top 10 fees payers and only 26 per cent of their outgoing patients are waiting for care home places while sandwiched between them is the Cwm Taf Morgannwg where the fees are lower and the picture is different.

Meanwhile, Bridgend Council, where 80 per cent of bed blockers are waiting for places in care homes, and Rhondda Cynon Taf, 63 per cent, are 14th and 12th in the table and Merthyr, 56.4 per cent, are tenth.

Mr Kreft added: “These figures are publicly available from the NHS Wales website and they show a very stark picture.

“In most areas costs for care providers are broadly the same so wherever the local authorities are paying very low fees most care homes will be charging the families of residents top-up fees.

“Providers trying to run a sustainable business naturally struggle with the low fees set by these authorities and have to resort to additional fees from families to cover the funding shortfall.

That leads to a situation where the local authority is restricted in finding suitable care beds, especially where additional family payments are not available.

“You end up in the ridiculous situation where large number of beds costing less than £200 a night are empty while there are people stuck in hospital beds, which cost £500 a night, waiting for a care home place.

“It’s short-sighted and counterintuitive. The NHS is paying out a fortune for people in hospital beds costing two and a half times what a care home bed costs and outside ambulances are waiting hours in car parks for a bed to become free.”