£4m to ease bed-blocking - and that's the lot!

The money will be used to fund 100 residential nursing home places across the county in a bid to halve delayed discharge figures. Amongst the beneficiaries are the Conquest Hospital, which last week reported a total of 50 beds were filled by patients awaiting transfer, a rise of 11 from the same time last year.

But the County Council warned they had emptied their reserves to bail out the health service, and urged them "to get their act together" to reduce the problem this year.

The 3 million provided by the County Council - coupled with 1 million from the government - empties their special reserve fund set up last year to tackle the problem. The fund was originally earmarked to fund initiatives for the next three years.

County Council leader Peter Jones said: "We're putting together a package either to get them to stay in their own homes or pay to get them into residential care or a nursing home.

"In our last budget we set up this reserve as we knew the population was starting to age. We started to make provision for the next two to three years. But unfortunately

we're having to spend this quicker than we expected and all in one go.

"The health sector has not modernised its clinical procedures as well as many others in the country. The NHS Hospitals trust and Primary Care Trusts need to get their acts together. We don't want our elderly people going into hospital unnecessarily."

But he warned fines incurred by the County Council over delayed discharges - expected to reach 300,000 this year - would eat into the windfall unless the NHS trust agreed to redirect the money back into intermediate care.

He said: "We can either use it to buy more care or use it for paying fines. The money we expect to use up in fines this year could be used to ensure up to 20 people will not have to spend time in hospital."

A spokesperson representing the Hospitals NHS trust and PCTs in East Sussex welcomed the investment. He said: "This will enable our hospital services to focus on the treatment of acutely ill patients and ensure that operations are not cancelled.

"To prevent cost shifting from one service to another and enable public services to be delivered within available resources it is essential to continue to work in partnership with the County Council and Social Services to develop alternative models of care."