 A £3m unit built to 'unblock' beds at the Countess of Chester Hospital is lying empty and unused. Health bosses are scratching their heads over what to do with the 28-bed unit, which was completed in June. The Cheshire West Primary Care Trust, which is forecasting a £17.6m overspend, built the intermediate care unit for older people who may not require hospital treatment but need support to recuperate in a safe environment from illness, an operation or a fall. It was also meant to help prevent 'bed-blocking' in which elderly people take up hospital beds because they are not quite well enough to be discharged. Now the PCT says current NHS thinking is that elderly people should be cared for in their homes with support and recent developments must be considered before the building's future is determined. But this view has been challenged by a patients' watchdog which says the unit is empty because the PCT has no money to run it and described the situation as 'a dreadful waste' of a health care facility. Spokesman Geoff Ryall-Harvey, of the Patient and Public Involvement Forum, said: 'The intermediate care unit is in line with modern thinking. We do not accept the arguments of the PCT. The exact opposite is true, as the facility is part of a range of options available to patients. Not everybody is ready to go home, even with support.' He said bed-blocking was no longer an issue due to an improved discharge system but he said the Countess wanted to use the facility for its original purpose. PCT spokeswoman Anne-Marie Storey said around the time the unit was completed the Royal College of Physicians published a report which triggered a wholesale review of the way older people's services should be provided. More recently, the White Paper, 'Our Health, our Care, Our Say: A new direction for Community Services,' had led all Primary Care Trusts to review how local health services were delivered to help people live independently. Mrs Storey said: 'These and other recent developments have to be taken into consideration before we settle on a preferred option for the long-term use of the new unit which delivers best value for patients and the public purse.' | 
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