A row has broken out between NHS managers and social services staff in Oxfordshire over the cause of delays in freeing up hospital beds.

Staff at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust have warned that treatment waiting times and casualty delays could reappear if social services continues failing the needs of patients.

Staff at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust said about 90 people who no longer needed treatment were taking up beds at their four hospitals, but could not be discharged until they received support in the community.

Many are waiting for home help or a care home place from Oxfordshire County Council's social services department, while others need rehabilitative care at community hospitals -- where beds are also blocked by people who cannot leave without social services help.

But a social services spokesman said that the department could not be blamed for all delays and claimed that there were vacant beds in community hospitals.

ORH planning and information director Andrew Stevens said the trust had worked hard to reduce waits, including the four-hour target in casualty, but blocked beds needed to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

He said: "Part of our ability to keep to the four-hour target is our ability to find beds for patients arriving at the hospital, and that's been compromised in recent weeks by the number of patients who no longer need further care.

"There are about 90 delayed discharges at the moment, equivalent to about three wards of people, and that's a subject of concern to the trust."

Social services staff started working closely with the ORH last year when delayed discharges were blamed for long waits for new patients.

Although bed blocking was reduced, it has started to creep back up over recent months.

ORH divisional director Ailsa Granne said: "In December 2004 we had a target to get delayed discharges down to 50 and although they did drop, we only met that on a couple of occasions.

"What we've seen in the past few weeks is a trend in the opposite direction."

ORH chief executive Trevor Campbell Davies is now due to meet social services director Charles Waddicor to discuss the situation.

Although social services staff claim they are not solely responsible for delayed discharges, ORH spokesman Helen Peggs explained that without the county council department's help, the hospitals would continue to suffer.

She said: "We've never said it's all the fault of social services, but we do know that if we were able to solve this particular issue, we'd have a lot more flexibility in our system."

A social services spokesman said latest figures highlighted 79 delayed discharges at the ORH, but only 20 were waiting for social services care, while more than a third needed another NHS bed. The spokesman also claimed that 10 community hospital beds were available on Friday.

In a statement, she said: "We're sorry to publicly disagree with the trust, but we can't accept their view that we bear the biggest responsibility for delays in hospital discharges from either the JR or the ORH as a whole."