A PROPOSED pioneer care scheme aimed at avoiding bed blocking in Pendle has been welcomed by the borough's executive.

The Intermediate Care Pilot will be a partnership between health and social services and is aimed at improving the quality of life for the borough's elderly and convalescing.

It is hoped it will prevent elderly people having to be admitted to hospital when there is no medical need, will ease the early discharge of convalescing patients from hospital and free valuable beds.

It is also aimed at preventing the council being surcharged by the health care trusts through the bed-blocking scheme from April 2003.

Officers from Pendle Council's housing and community services department have been working closely with colleagues from social services and the Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale Primary Care Trust to develop the pilot scheme.

The main strands are the provision of intermediate care accommodation, Telecare and improved joint working arrangements.

Ian Broughton, housing and community services manager, said: "Under the immediate care accommodation section, the council would provide two council-owned properties which would be fully refurbished and adapted by social services.

"They would be used to support elderly people, whether as an alternative to being admitted to hospital, or as an aid to early discharge from hospital after medical treatment.

"The occupants will stay at the property for no more than six weeks and this will allow the occupational therapy service to work with them to carry out proper assessments."

As part of the scheme, social services have secured a £15,000 grant through an a government project to pilot the installation of Telecare equipment in up to ten properties in Pendle.

These include monitoring devices such as cooker monitors, which can detect whether customers have inadvertently left the gas switched on, and fall monitors which detect a fall through under-carpet sensors in the house.

The third part of the pilot scheme, which is still under discussion, could involve the district nurse service covering Pendle, Burnley and Rossendale being based at Holmefield House, in Barrowford, to work alongside the council's care line and community visitor service.

This could create eight jobs in Pendle and, if the pilot proves successful, it could be extended aross the whole of the primary care trust area.

Members of Pendle's executive approved the recommendations to use two council owned properties and to participate in the Telecare alarms pilot.

They asked for immediate discussions with Barrowford Parish Council about the possibility of using Holmefield House for the joint working pilot.

Councillor Mohammed Iqbal said: "Bed blocking is a national issue and this is one opportunity where this authority is taking the lead."

The scheme will be funded through existing resources.