Council tenants could be evicted... to ease hospital crisis

ABLE-BODIED council tenants could be asked to leave their homes in Stoke-on-Trent to make way for people with a disability who are blocking hospital beds.

An audit of the city’s near-20,000 housing stock has been called for by senior councillors, who want to know how many properties are fitted with aids and adaptations when able-bodied families live in them.

It is part of a fresh push to free up scarce beds at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire for new patients facing marathon delays in its emergency department.

At times up to 100 beds a day have been occupied by recovered patients who cannot be discharged, partly because there are no adapted properties available for them.

Now Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s health scrutiny committee has asked the authority’s housing committee to conduct the audit.

It was prompted by scrutiny group member Dave Sutton who said there were several cases of able-bodied tenants living in properties with a full range of aids and adaptations they did not need.

The Birches Head councillor said: “This seems totally unfair when someone who is really disabled cannot get a suitable property and may be stuck in hospital because of that.

“I know of cases like this in Abbey Hulton and Tunstall and it sometimes goes on for four years.

“In the Abbey one able-bodied tenant had been living in a house where there is a full-sized lift in the living room to take a wheelchair up to the bedroom.

“Whatever we do we need the data first but if able-bodied tenants are offered a nice property somewhere close-by, I am sure they wouldn’t kick up too much fuss about being asked to leave.

“It can cost £10,000 to adapt a property so if you did this just five times you would make a fair saving, as well as helping to ease the problems at the hospital.”

The audit call comes as the hospital puts back its application for foundation trust (FT) status until it ends the delays in its accident unit and slashes delayed discharges.

Hospital director Andrea Green said: “We now intend to go to the next stage of our FT application in June.

“But only if we have gained public confidence by then by showing we have hit national targets to treat or admit patients within four hours of their arrival at A&E for the previous three months.

“We face big challenges in emergency care but are learning lessons and making sure we do not make old mistakes.”