An action plan has been drawn up to make services better for elderly people and stop bed blocking.

East Sussex County Council is working closely with the NHS to modernise and improve the way the older population is looked after.

Top of the agenda is tackling bed blocking, which has caused chaos at Eastbourne District General Hospital and the Conquest Hospital in Hastings.

The hospitals have struggled to cope with dealing with large numbers of people coming to their A&E departments only to find there are no beds free.

This is often because they are taken up by older people waiting for care or nursing home places to become available.

The draft plan deals with the problems raised by an Audit Commission report last autumn, which emphasised the need for social services and the NHS to work closely together.

The report found progress had been made but there was still more to be done.

The action plan looks at the entire system for helping older people, through from community-based services such as health visitors to GP practices and hospitals.

It also looks at rehabilitation, respite care facilities and intermediate care, which helps patients who have just been discharged from hospital but are not quite ready to be on their own at home.

The idea is to focus more attention on community-based treatment and support of older, more vulnerable people so there is less chance of them being admitted to hospital in the first place.

More intermediate care places will also mean a patient can come out of hospital more quickly and be cared for elsewhere, creating more space at the hospital.

A project manager has been jointly appointed by all the organisations involved to oversee putting the plan into action.

The county council has already agreed investment of £500,000, with a further £400,000 earmarked for intermediate care services in Hastings and St. Leonards.

It also agreed to release £3 million of its cash to pay for 100 extra residential and nursing home places to help ease the crisis faced by East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust.

The plan will be presented to individual NHS committees and boards for approval before a final version is drawn up.