A crisis in the care home sector has led to a sharp increase in "bed blocking" in the south east, according to a report published by the Liberal Democrats today.

The report, No Room at the Inn, said the discharge from hospital of 1,360 elderly people was delayed in the three months to March this year.

This represents an increase of 26 per cent on the same period two years' ago, the Lib Dems claim.

Hundreds of patients in East and West Sussex are regularly waiting for places in nursing homes, the equivalent of several wards.

On average about 50 patients are waiting at Brighton Health Care NHS Trust.

Brighton and Hove has seen the loss of 20 per cent of care homes in the last 18 months.

At its peak Eastbourne Hospitals NHS Trust has had up to 70 patients waiting to be discharged.

A trust spokesman said: "This is an ongoing problem and we are doing everything we can to sort out what is happening.

"It is difficult all round because care homes don't want to close, patients are unhappy about waiting for treatment and we don't have the room to treat other patients as quickly as we would like."

More than 40 homes in East Sussex have closed in the last 16 months and the owners of a further 17 have decided to quit the industry by next April.

The main problem is the cost of implementing new Government standards for care homes which many places, already struggling to continue, cannot afford.

In a speech to the party's conference in Bournemouth, Older People spokesman Paul Burstow said some of the elderly patients could not be discharged when they were fit to leave hospital because they did not have beds to go to in care homes.

He said this "bed blocking" had a knock-on effect on other hospital departments.

It prevents patients being transferred from A&E on to main surgical wards, forcing them to endure delays and wait on trolleys.

Mr Burstow called for the Government to carry out an urgent review of care home capacity.

He believes the problem will not be solved until care home workers are offered decent wages to stop them from leaving and the homes from having to close down.

Mr Burstow said: "Over the last four years the Government has presided over a collapse of confidence in the care home sector.

"That loss of confidence has turned into an exodus.In the last two years alone, 28,000 beds have been lost and it is still rising.

"Councils are coping with the pressure on their social services budgets by squeezing care home fees.

"If you are in hospital and need a bed in a care home social services will only pay for it once someone else in that care home has died.

He said: "Today in this country Tesco pays people more to stack shelves than a care worker earns looking after a frail elderly person.

"Cans of beans are more important than dignity in old age, so no wonder it is difficult to recruit and train staff.

"Health and social care are two sides of the same coin. Under investment in social care undermines the NHS and causes gridlock in our care system."