Elderly patients could be cared for at home instead of in hospital under a £3 million project to ease a bed-blocking crisis.

East Sussex County Council has scooped the Government cash for a project to improve services for older people in the county.

The Independence First project will identify older people who might otherwise need to go into hospital or a care home and help them stay in their own homes where they will be treated by a specialist team.

East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Eastbourne District General Hospital and the Conquest Hospital in St Leonards, has experienced serious problems with bed-blocking patients who are stuck in hospital because no suitable nursing or care home place can be found for them.

The problem reached a peak earlier this month when it emerged there were 91 bed-blocking patients at the trust and more than a quarter had been in hospital for 28 days or more.

The trust 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.

New trust chief executive Kim Hodgson recently criticised the council, saying she was baffled by its failure to fulfil its statutory obligation to find places for patients needing care after they had left hospital.

The council responded by saying it was doing what it could, including paying for an extra 100 residential and nursing home places.

The announcement follows the Government's decision last month to invest £34.7 million towards building four care centres for the elderly in the county.

The news came as Eastbourne MP Nigel Waterson tabled a motion at the House of Commons to draw attention to the trust's struggle to deal with bed-blocking.

The motion noted with concern that bed-blocking was running at almost 100 beds and that this was the worst in the entire NHS.

It also referred to the £17 million cuts the trust is being forced to make this year.

It called on Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt to "review urgently the level of Government funding for both health and social services in East Sussex and in particular to ensure that funding adequately reflects the fact that the county has the highest proportion of over-85 year olds in the UK."

Mr Waterson said: "I hope that all my colleagues in East Sussex, Brighton and Hove will sign my motion as this is a problem which affects all our constituents. Meanwhile, I am continuing to press the Speaker for a full debate on the crisis in our local hospital."

The successful bid was made by the county in partnership with primary care trusts in East Sussex, mental health services and a range of voluntary groups working with the elderly.