THOUSANDS of dementia patients face spending Christmas Day in a hospital bed, a charity has said.

Alzheimer’s Society estimates that 1,400 people across England will be stuck in hospital over the Christmas period – unable to be sent home because of a lack of homecare or care home placements.

The charity warned that delays in the social care system were “turning wards into waiting rooms”.

Chris Atkinson, Alzheimer’s Society operations manager for Swindon, said: “With such scarce social care funding, wards are being turned into waiting rooms, and safety is being jeopardised.

“From the woman who spent two months on a bed in a corridor because there were no available care home places, to the man who died after months of waiting left him debilitated by hospital-acquired infections, people with dementia are repeatedly falling victim to a system that cannot meet their needs.”

According to analysis by the charity, one in four patients responsible for “bed-blocking” delays have dementia.

They said that last year people with dementia spent half a million extra days in hospital, despite being well enough to be discharged by nurses.

Long stays in hospital can have “life-changing” results for those with dementia, with many becoming too frail to be discharged.

Applying the Alzheimer’s Society’s calculations to Swindon, it is estimated that around five people with dementia will be left on the wards on Christmas Day, unable to be discharged. This is based on hospital bed blocking statistics for September.

A GWH spokesman said the hospital gave dementia patients "unique and personal" care.

“Ensuring these more vulnerable patients are looked after in the right environment is key – especially at this time of year - and we work closely with our partners in the social care system to make this happen without unnecessary delay or complication," he said.

“We do everything we can to make sure anybody well enough to leave hospital is able to enjoy Christmas at home.”

The Alzheimer’s Society called for more cash for councils supporting people out of hospital.

The charity’s Chris Atkinson said: “One million people will have dementia by 2021, yet local authorities’ social care budgets are woefully inadequate, and no new money has been promised in the budget to cope with increasing demand.

“Government attention must be focussed on social care, and pounds put behind their promises, to alleviate the pressure on our NHS hospitals, and the suffering of people with dementia on its wards.”

A Department of Health spokesman responded: “This is a very small survey based on statistics from September and isn’t representative of the actual situation.

“No one should be stuck in hospital when their treatment has finished, that’s why we’ve given an extra £2 billion funding for social care over the next three years and next summer we will publish plans to reform social care to ensure it is sustainable for the future.”