Elderly patients are being released from NHS trusts up to four times later than others because of the delay it takes for a specialist to see them, according to newly released research by the Foundation Trust Network (FTN).

The figures come after a report attacked the standard of dementia care in hospitals, with staff accused of ignoring patients suffering from the condition.

Some two thirds of hospital staff admitted that they had not been given enough training in caring for dementia patients despite the fact one in four beds are occupied by a dementia sufferer.

The survey, which studied 16 NHS trusts across the country, found that patients suffering from falls which did not require surgery spent half as long in hospital if the trust had earlier input from geriatric specialists.

The overall average length of stay for this type of fall was 19 days, but in one trust it rose to 26 days while in another it was less than a week.

The results also showed that waiting times to see a specialist varied significantly between hospitals, with one trust leaving elderly patients waiting over a week while another averaged less than a day.

To reduce the amount of time patients were left waiting, one trust set up a dedicated short-stay assessment ward for the elderly, doubling the number of older patients discharged within 48 hours over a year.

The number of patients needing to attend hospital was also reduced by placing geriatricians in care homes and the community, while assigning a team to make daily telephone calls to recently discharged patients reduced admission rates.

Another cut the average length of hospital stay for patients discharged from elderly care wards from 37 days to 24, by appointing a specialist team to seek out and screen older patients wherever in the hospital they were staying.

Sue Slipman, chief executive of the FTN, said: "It does elderly patients no good to be in hospital for vast amounts of time, a lot of them can lose their abilities to live on their own and become dependant.

"Most hospitals will have specialist geriatricians and if not they are getting them. This is becoming a specialised area and there is a very direct correlation between early intervention by specialists and outcome for patients."

Michelle Mitchell, Charity Director of Age UK, said: "The NHS needs to wake up to the fact that the majority of people it now sees are older people and it must rethink how it delivers care to meet their needs.

"It's encouraging to see that these NHS trusts are taking a proactive approach and have recognised the importance of involving specialists in medicine for older people early on in care. This now needs to be routine across the entire NHS."