Nurses and social workers will work together over the Millennium break to ease the pressure on Oxfordshire's crisis-hit hospitals.

The agreement has been reached between Oxfordshire Health Authority (OHA), social services and other agencies to try to ensure everyone who needs care will get it.

Three times in the last fortnight, patients at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital, Radcliffe Infirmary and Churchill Hospital, and The Horton Hospital, Banbury have been forced to wait on trolleys in hospital corridors for two hours and been delayed in ambulances. During the run-up to Christmas and the New Year holidays, social workers are working with hospital colleagues to ensure support is available at home to allow patients to be discharged where appropriate.

It follows three years of planning for the Millennium, during which time it was highlighted that any discharge problems could cause a backlog in the system and put enormous pressure on the already-stretched accident and emergency departments at the John Radcliffe and the Horton hospitals.

Michael Taylor, chief executive of OHA, said: "The help of social services is invaluable in ensuring that only those people who need to be in hospital are in hospital. "The benefits of working together like this include freeing up beds, so that the health system runs more smoothly, and getting people home, which is where, especially at this time of year, they want to be."

Mary Robertson, director of social services, said: "Our staff are co-operating with hospital staff to ensure patients can leave hospital as soon as they are able.

"The social workers' assessment of need, and the home care that can be arranged, is a vital element in keeping the system going."

Story date: Friday 10 December

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