A CONTROVERSIAL plan to give hospital "bed-blockers" 14 days to chose a care home has been strongly criticised by a national charity for elderly people.

The draft policy, which may be introduced at hospitals in Darlington, Durham and Bishop Auckland, is believed to be the first in the country to impose a deadline on patient choice.

Currently, elderly patients who wish to move into a particular care home after treatment can stay in hospital until a place becomes free.

But this has created major problems for hospitals, leading to cancelled operations.

A spokeswoman at Age Concern's London headquarters said they were very worried about the proposals, which would put pressure on elderly patients and their families.

If the policy was adopted by County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals NHS Trust it would mean elderly patients would no longer be able to occupy a hospital bed until a place in the care home of their choice came up.

The move is part of a Government-backed drive to reduce pressure on hospital beds.

Councils have until January 5 to eliminate delays caused by lack of care home places.

After that date they will be ordered to pay the local hospital a reimbursement fee of about £100 per day for each discharge delay.

Durham Social Services recently announced it would spend almost £1m on expanding the number of care home places, both in the private and public sector.

Darlington Primary Care Trust is planning to spend about £750,000 on extra private sector care home spaces and an improved support service designed to help patients return to their own homes.

The Age Concern spokeswoman said: "We have not heard of this anywhere else in the country. It is something that we would be very worried about. We would not want to see older people pressurised to take a care home place when it may not be the best choice for them."

She said the organisation would be extremely concerned if the draft policy was adopted.

The proposal was discussed at yesterday's meeting of County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals NHS Trust board.

Latest figures show that 40 patients who no longer require acute hospital treatment are bed-blocking, although trust officials est- imate that only about seven per week are subject to reimbursement charges.