Furious council leaders are demanding a meeting with a Government minister who said they were deliberately keeping pensioners in hospital rather than discharging them.

Peter Jones, leader of East Sussex County Council, wants to speak with Health Minister Rosie Winterton after she told Parliament the county was stopping elderly people leaving hospital to save the cost of putting them in residential care homes.

He said: "We want a meeting and we are asking for an apology. The comments of Rosie Winterton, Michael Foster and Norman Baker were totally inaccurate and portrayed the council in completely the wrong light.

"They know and we know the Government has been underfunding health and social services for some time now. That's the basic problem we all face.'

The row blew up last Tuesday when Ms Winterton told the House of Commons: "There is a clear pattern being adopted by the Conservative-controlled council to prevent people from leaving hospital because they think it's cheaper to keep them in.'

The practice of keeping patients in hospital when they could be sent to care homes leaves hospitals such as Eastbourne District General short of space for emergency admissions and routine operations.

Coun Jones said the minister had missed the point. The council was struggling to stop bed blocking in hospitals because it had more pensioners than most other counties but received paltry annual Government grant increases of one per cent once money set aside for education was taken away.

Four years ago the county had 800 people on a waiting list for residential care but now there were none. At the same time an extra £20 million from efficiency savings and council tax increases had been put into providing social services for the elderly.

Coun Jones said the council's improving performance on services for the elderly had been praised by Government inspectors.

The council is fined £100 for every day a person is kept in hospital because social services is unable to look after them. East Sussex is expected to be fined a total of £800,000 this year.

Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes Norman Baker agreed more Government money should go into helping the council provide social services.

But he added: "A deliberate policy of bed blocking costs the taxpayers a gigantic amount of money.

"Rather than trying to bluff his way out of it, Coun Jones should admit he has been caught bang to rights and change council policy.'

At the last count there were 47 bed blockers at hospitals in Eastbourne and Hastings, 32 of them because there was no funding to put them in care homes.

Labour MP for Hastings and Rye Michael Foster said he would not apologise but added he would be happy to accompany Mr Jones to any meeting with Ms Winterton.