Social services departments face the prospect of fines for delayed discharges. But nurses and social workers see serious flaws in the idea, as Katie Leason reports

MAGINE YOU are old, frail and stuck in hospital. The doctors and nurses don’t say it, but you sense they would rather give your bed to someone who ‘really needs it’. In the mean-time social services are talking up an ill-reputed care home on the other side of town. All you want is to go home but, knowing your ill health makes this impossible, you have chosen a care home near to where your daughter lives. But there are no vacancies, the clock is ticking and the professionals dealing with you seem increasingly desperate to move you on.