THE care of the elderly in our society has long been a cause of concern - and especially the treatment of those recovering in hospital.

Bed blocking has been a contentious issue in this region for years. It is, in effect, a human traffic jam that prevents hospitals from operating at full capacity.

Elderly patients who are fit enough to leave hospital but cannot return home are forced to remain on the wards. This is because there is nowhere else for them to go, thanks to a severe shortage of places in care homes. Such patients are "blocking" beds which could be used by other patients needing operations.

Vale of York Tory MP Anne McIntosh raised this issue at Prime Minister's Questions last month, drawing on a report by the Westminster Public Accounts Committee which found that throughout the country 3,500 pensioners were still needlessly stuck in hospital every day.

Ms McIntosh, to no one's surprise, blamed the Government, saying tougher rules were making it difficult for care homes to operate.

Now the Government thinks it has found a possible solution by appointing a "bed blocking" tsar who will negotiate between the NHS and local social services departments. This sounds like a good example of "joined up thinking" which will ensure the whole system works properly instead of existing in a state of confusion or duplication.

Yet the tsar is also a softener for a tough new policy which will see councils, including our own, forced to pay a fine of £100 for every night a patient spends in hospital "unnecessarily".

This sounds suspiciously like a piece of quick footwork from New Labour. Fining hospitals for blocked beds may seem a fitting punishment, but it doesn't get to the roots of the problem by solving the crisis in care home places.

Updated: 11:15 Wednesday, October 15, 2003