The number of bed blockers at two major hospitals has risen to its highest level since the summer.

Roughly nine per cent of the 1,000 beds at East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust are occupied by people fit for discharge but with nowhere to go.

Figures for the week ending October 28 revealed there were 91 bed blockers at the trust, which runs the Eastbourne District General Hospital (DGH) and Conquest Hospital, St Leonards.

Of that 91, 68 patients were occupying beds because social services could not find community healthcare places. The remaining 23 were for non-social services reasons.

Yesterday the trust said the figure of 91 was up 18 on the previous week.

Of that 18, 14 were due to social services not finding places for patients needing care after they have left hospital.

The number of bed blockers at the trust is at its highest since July 14, when 102 patients occupied beds but were fit for discharge.

New trust chief executive Kim Hodgson last week took the unusual step of publicly accusing East Sussex County Council of failing patients who need long-term care.

At the time, she said: "The trust fulfills its duty to provide the medical care and treatment patients need but there are some who once they have had that treatment still need support.

"That is when the other organisations need to take over. Our hospitals do their best to look after the patients but they do not have the facilities for the next step.

"It is beyond belief that this situation has been allowed to go on for so long. It is something we need to work at closely."

Bed blocking has been a long-running strain on already-stretched services at the trust. It had to cancel 472 operations at the last minute between January and June this year and a large number of those were because beds were taken up by patients who could not leave. The trust also took the extraordinary step earlier this year of funding 30 nursing home places and had plans to build a temporary 35-bed acute ward for surgical patients in a staff car park at Eastbourne.

The Tory-led council yesterday said in a statement: "The fundamental problem with bed blocking is that some people are admitted to hospital unnecessarily in the first place and the whole system needs to be looked at.

"Despite severely restricted budgets we continue to invest in services but throwing council tax payers' money at the problem will not solve it.

"We are working with health to reform all our systems to ensure that hospitals are used for the most serious cases and we are developing more intermediate care facilities.

"However, the situation in East Sussex is particularly difficult as we have the highest proportion of older people in the country (over 85s) and poor financial settlements from central Government.

"An action plan has been agreed with the Audit Commission which recognises that health and social care community based services need to be further developed to provide a sustainable solution."

The trust's board meets today at the DGH from 2pm.