Moves to take pressure off Blackpool Victoria Hospital admissions

Dr Arif Rajpura's comments come after Karen Smith was appointed as a director of the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB), while continuing in her role as Blackpool Council's director of adult social care.

The change is part of moves to bring the NHS and adult social care closer.

Dr Rajpura told a meeting of Blackpool Council's audit committee it was vital to make more use of community services to solve problems at Blackpool Victoria Hospital which is operating at 96 per cent capacity.

He said: "Keeping people out of hospital, whether they are frail or elderly, that's key.

"It's not great for a 90-year-old to sit on a trolley for 20 hours - that's not good for their health and we need to avoid that at all costs.

"We would prefer to keep them in their home with wrap around care, and it's how we resource that."

Dr Rajpura also told the meeting Covid had made many people more frail because they had stayed at home during the pandemic, but now they needed to be encouraged to take exercise in the open air.

He said: "People have got frailer because they have been cooped up at home and not getting exercise, and so they are more at risk of ending up in hospital.

"We need to coax people out of their homes to get some fresh air. We are seeing the impact of inactivity as people are getting frail."

The council's public health team hopes to do this by working more closely with leisure services to encourage people to take up activity including use of parks, cycling and joining groups where they can enjoy hobbies such as gardening.

The council has already worked with the NHS to set up a Transfer of Care Hub, which supports patients who are medically fit for discharge but need support to leave hospital.

Its Vitaline telephone-based service is also working with the NHS to monitor patients with respiratory diseases so they can stay at home, and to get medical help to people who have fallen at home which has prevented seven hospital admissions since June.