Word.ws English Dictionary

bed blocker

bed blocker noun: an elderly hospitalized person who is too infirm to return home but not sufficiently ill to necessitate continued hospitalization, creating a situation in which his or her hospital stay is prolonged while authorities or relatives search for a suitable placement amid the scarce resources of nursing homes or other long-term care facilities.

Noun

bed blocker (plural bed blockers)

  1. (UK, derogatory, idiomatic, public policy) An elderly hospitalized person who is too infirm to return home but not sufficiently ill to necessitate continued hospitalization, creating a situation in which his or her hospital stay is prolonged while authorities or relatives search for a suitable placement amid the scarce resources of nursing homes or other long-term care facilities.
    • A 72-year-old "bed blocker" was yesterday ordered to vacate the hospital bed he has refused to leave for three years, despite being in good health.2006 March 7, Jacqueline Maley, “Court evicts NHS 'bed blocker'”, in The Guardian, UK, retrieved 02 Dec 2012
    • There will also be a fee charged to a "bed blocker"—someone fit for discharge from an acute hospital but reluctant to go until a nursing home place is provided.2008 October 10, Eilish O'Regan, “Plan aims to ease cost of nursing home care”, in Irish Independent, retrieved 02 Dec 2012

Forms of bed blocker

pluralbed blockers
alternative formbed-blocker
alternative formbedblocker

Questions about bed blocker

What does bed blocker mean?
Bed blocker means an elderly hospitalized person who is too infirm to return home but not sufficiently ill to necessitate continued hospitalization, creating a situation in which his or her hospital stay is prolonged while authorities or relatives search for a suitable placement amid the scarce resources of nursing homes or other long-term care facilities.
What part of speech is bed blocker?
Bed blocker is a noun.
What is the plural of bed blocker?
The plural of bed blocker is bed blockers.

Words near bed blocker in the dictionary

  1. bed and board
  2. bed and breakfast
  3. bed and breakfasts
  4. bed bath
  5. bed baths
  6. bed blocker
  7. bed blockers
  8. bed blocking
  9. bed blockings
  10. bed breaking
  11. bed bug

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bed blocker (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-bed blocker.ogg.

Cite this entry: “bed blocker.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bed_blocker. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.