Nearly £500,000 in fines has been paid to the National Health Service by Hampshire County Council for failing promptly to arrange community care for recovering patients in hospital beds.

Since January this year, hospital trusts have been able to fine social services £100 per person per day for failing to put a care package in place for those ready to be discharged. Hamphire has been hit with fines totalling £481,000 for the last 10 months, averaging around £12,000 per week.

To cushion the blow, the Government handed out grants to every council to invest in preventative services. Hampshire, deemed a delayed discharge "hot spot," received £1.2m in 2003/4 and £1.9m in 2004/5.

This helped pay for extra social workers in hospitals to provide a rapid response to emergencies and more community-based services.

Since the fines were introduced, there has been a reduction in bed-blocking, but not as dramatic as hospital chiefs had hoped.

Latest figures for the Royal Hampshire County Hospital, in Winchester, The Mount Hospital, Bishopstokewhich recently closed to in-patientsand Andover's War Memorial Hospital show delayed discharges reduced by 21% from an average of 75 in 2002/3 to 59 over the last 10 months.

Four out of ten delayed discharges are due to social services failing to organise community-based care. The most common reason is lack of nursing home places. Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust has fined Hampshire County Council £150,200 over the last 10 months.

Louise Halfpenny, for the hospital trust, said: "There is an overall downward trend, but it is not quite as good as we would like it to be."

She said the 500 new nursing home places being built by Hampshire County Council would help alleviate the problem. These include 13 extra beds at Westholme Nursing Home, in Harestock, Winchester. The first of these new nursing home places will be available early next year and the rest by 2006.

Andrew Brooker, assistant director of social services, said the number of delayed discharges across the county had fallen from 208 in March 2003 to 134 in October 2004.

"Those figures show a significant reduction in the number of people waiting to be discharged and that is down to the hard work of staff."

Mr Brooker said the council had used the Government grant to employ extra social workers in hospitals and fund more community-based services, including nursing home care.

"We would obviously like everyone in hospital to move out as soon as they are fit but the reality of the market is that supply of care is limited in Hampshire both in-house and what we buy. There is also a problem with procuring care at an affordable price."

Hampshire has just given its care home staff a 20% pay rise in a bid to fill vacancies at its homes.