Until recently the term “bed blocking” was something about which I had little knowledge. However, in the last few days my voluntary work with fire service pensioners has brought me experience of what it really means.

A retired firefighter of advanced years, with an exemplary record of public service to his credit, fell ill in Wiltshire and needed hospital treatment as an inpatient.

His treatment went well and the NHS was ready to discharge him to home in under a week.

However, he needs a care package and social services could not provide it immediately.

This resulted in there being no alternative but to turn him into a bed-blocker, someone occupying a hospital bed when they should be at home.

It is difficult for me to find the words to adequately express how depressing and debilitating he found this situation.

His wife was burdened with having to make phone calls and write letters to try to find a solution to the problem and get her husband back home with the level of care and protection his serious disabilities demanded.

However, her efforts at first simply led to her being referred to the council’s complaints procedure.

To someone in their situation, it is easy for the bed-blocker and his wife to see this as merely another obstacle to be cleared in the wall of bureaucracy that has already failed them.

They were made to feel insignificant and undervalued by the council that works with the strapline “where everybody matters”.

I checked inside the glossy magazine that was recently delivered free of charge to my home that tells of all the good works being done by Wiltshire Council but I couldn’t find any honest reference to the sort of situation that my former colleague was facing. Obviously, the spin doctors are doing a brilliant job for the council even if the care services are struggling.

A few weeks ago, I saw an interview on TV with the Care Minister, Norman Lamb MP. He made reference to the severe problems in initiating the policy of getting the NHS and the care services to work together. The word he used to describe the situation was “hopeless”.

I was shocked by this and now that I have become involved with a bed-blocker I can see exactly what the Care Minister meant. It is a disgraceful shambles that is wasting money and creating suffering where the care services and the NHS should be relieving it.

Of course, at the root of this there is the problem of lack of funding. This is being written on the very day that the Conservatives announced that, if elected in May, they will increase spending on the NHS by £2 billion.

The other parties will no doubt seek to match or even trump this with higher offers as the election draws closer.

I have just read in the parish magazine the local Wiltshire councillor telling of the further cuts that are in the pipeline for the local services. Will that mean more bed-blockers? When will it be the turn of the care services to get an injection of funds to alleviate the bed-blocker problem?

However, even if additional funds are allocated to the care services, unless the hopeless situation Norman Lamb MP described is tackled, the problem of bed-blocking is unlikely to be resolved.

Is it really asking too much for the managers in NHS and social services to start working as true partners for the benefit of the people who pay their salaries?

Please hear this plea all Wiltshire MPs and Wiltshire Council cabinet members.