A NEW NHS scheme to provide convalescent care for old people recovering from hospital operations is desperately needed, says Gordon Prentice.

The Pendle MP promised Labour would deliver the required recuperation service for the elderly.

The Labour backbencher said: "Government policies have created a lack of NHS recuperative care beds so that elderly patients are often discharged too early or kept in acute care, blocking 9,000 beds. "And when elderly patients are discharged too early, too many of them end up back in hospital - 57,000 elderly people were re-admitted in 1994/95.

"Labour's scheme will provide nursing care for older patients ready to leave an acute ward but not strong enough to go home.

"The service, led by nurses, will not be a substitute for long-term care but will provide a short period when elderly patients have time to regain strength and confidence before returning home.

"Money save from NHS bureaucracy will pay its start-up costs."

The new service will free beds for the treatment of other patients, thus cutting waiting lists.

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