HOSPITALS will no longer be fining Wiltshire County Council for every patient blocking beds, under an agreement announced this week.

Up until now the Great Western Hospital in Swindon, the Royal United Hospital, Bath and Salisbury District Hospital have been fining the council up to £100 a day for every bed-blocking patient.

The council and three trusts responsible for the hospitals have now drawn up a funding agreement, in which the county council will pay for 50 places for patients who are currently bed-blocking.

Each hospital trust will have to draw up a top 10 list of patients ready to be discharged.

At the start of October there were 21 patients bed-blocking at the RUH, 20 in Salisbury and nine in Swindon. As part of the agreement, the council had to reduce that figure by a quarter by the end of the month, and has a target of reducing the total number of bed-blockers to just 10 by the end of 2006.

Ian Davey, interim director of the Department of Adult and Community Services at the county council, said: "The way it was set up before just meant the money was being passed between organisations but really the people who needed help most were not benefiting." RUH chief executive Mark Davies welcomed the agreement.

The Wiltshire Times revealed in June how the council racked up £136,000 in bed-blocking fines in just three months.