Bed blocking crisis as Channel Islands patients forced to stay in hospital

A patient with disabilities says he is being forced to stay in Jersey's Hospital because of a chronic shortage of carers and a lack of care home beds.

John Le Quesne told ITV News that he feels trapped after living on the ward for more than seven months.

He explained: "It's like being in prison without the company ... at least in prison you know when you're going to get out.

"Every week you think, 'next week, I'm going to get out, somebody's going to come along and take me and look after me' and it doesn't happen."

John is unable to go back to his specially adapted home because there is no-one available to help him and he is not the only one.

Figures obtained by ITV News show the scale of the problem across the Channel Islands - with 75 people who are well enough to leave hospital stuck on wards in Jersey and Guernsey because they cannot safely be released.

The number of patients delayed from leaving hospitals across the Channel Islands:

The latest figures from the States of Jersey and States of Guernsey refer to July 2022.

John added: "I was in the ambulance twice going to the care home, they phoned up the driver and said, 'sorry, can you take him back because we've already got rid of the bed' - that's how bad it is.

"All the carers and hospital staff are great, it's not their fault, it's the system which is wrong ... somebody's got to do something."

He says that the woman in the hospital bed next to him has dementia and has been on the ward for two years as there is nowhere else for her to go to get the care she needs.