In drawing attention to the burden on hospitals of patients who don’t need to be there “Don’t let this hospital drama end up a crisis” (The Argus, August 8), I believe you are letting local councils off the hook.

I believe the rules were changed some years ago to place a clear legal responsibility on councils for patients who were ready to be discharged from hospital but had nowhere suitable to go.

Mentioning “a shortage of nursing and care home beds or problems in organising home care” as the root problem surely fails to recognise that councils are often unwilling to pay the market rates so shortages and problems are predictable outcomes. It is therefore unfair for hospitals and prospective patients to bear the con-sequences of councils failing to meet their responsibilities and wrongly trying to create the impression they are doing all they can.

Brenda Reeves
St Keyna Avenue, Hove