CAR crash victim Frances Bull claims she was denied a bed at Devizes Hospital. Miss Bull, 81, who lives in Devizes, had spent six days in the Royal United Hospital, Bath, after being involved in a road accident which wrote her car off.

Miss Bull said she and the hospital doctors agreed that she was not well enough to return home and Miss Bull asked to be sent to Devizes Hospital for a period of rehabilitation.

But instead she was sent to Mayfield Residential Care Home in Nursteed Road, Devizes, which does not offer nursing care.

Miss Bull, who was a volunteer driver for Devizes and District Link for eight years, said: "In the days before I was due to be discharged from the RUH I was told that there were no beds available at Devizes Hospital.

"On the day I was being discharged I was told by a lady who was in charge of beds that there was a bed at Devizes Hospital but they were sending me to Mayfield because it would be quieter than at Devizes Hospital. I found that explanation very strange and I don't understand why I was sent there.

"The room I had at Mayfield was very nice and the staff looked after me but there was no nursing care which is what I needed at the time."

Miss Bull, who is diabetic, added: "It Mayfield my blood pressure wasn't taken and my blood sugar level wasn't taken which is no fault of theirs. I felt I needed to be in a hospital."

During her stay at Mayfield Miss Bull developed a complication and had to call a friend to take her to her GP surgery.

Miss Bull said: "I needed medical help and no-one at Mayfield could tell me what was wrong with me as they do not have nurses there, so I had to get myself down to the surgery.

"A nurse at my surgery diagnosed the problem and it was sorted out but if I had been in Devizes Hospital it would have been dealt with immediately. That incident scared me."

Miss Bull received physiotherapy and occupational therapy while in Mayfield but feels that it would have been more cost effective for the NHS if she was in Devizes Hospital as staff would have been on site.

Miss Bull stayed in Mayfield for almost three weeks and then returned to her home on May 19 which, ironically, is close to Devizes Hospital.

A spokesman for the Royal United Hospital could not comment on Miss Bull's circumstances but said: "When a patient no longer needs to be looked after in an acute hospital bed they will be assessed by the discharge liaison nurses a multi-disciplinary team from both the RUH and the Primary Care Trusts.

"They will decide whether a patient requires ongoing nursing care in a community hospital setting or if their needs can be met in other ways.

"If a patient needs nursing care in a community hospital they will be put on a waiting list for a bed in their Primary Care Trust area. If, however, the assessment shows a patient only needs physiotherapy, rehabilitation or occupational therapy they will be transferred to a transitional bed in a residential care home where they will be supported by a team of multi-disciplinary therapists."

The cost of a bed for a week at Mayfield is £388 while it is more than £1,000 at Devizes Hospital. Devizes Hospital has 38 inpatient beds. One ward comprising 20 beds is being used for patients from Savernake Hospital in Marlborough while the new £9.8m Savernake Hospital is being built.

PCT acting joint chief executive Stephen Golledge told a PCT board meeting last week the timetable for preparing an outline business case for the proposed new Devizes Hospital at Green Lane will slip behind schedule.

The trust expected to produce it and an outline planning application by the end of June. The sticking point is where to locate a new day surgery unit. Both Devizes Hospital and Melksham Hospital are vying for the unit.