Health services in North Yorkshire have been given a £1 million windfall to avoid a winter crisis.

The money is part of a £160 million nationwide injection of Government cash to relieve seasonal pressures.

City of York Council's social services department has also been given an extra £314,000 to ease pressures of bed-blocking by elderly patients waiting to be moved from hospital to nursing homes.

Social services cash will ease the long-term problem of elderly people stuck in York District Hospital while they wait for funding to become available so they can move to nursing homes.

The council has been forced to ration funding because of pressures on its budget.

Bill Hodson, City of York Council's assistant community services director, said: "We welcome this extra help for the winter period to help resolve a

problem which the Government has clearly recognised is a national issue.

"This money is in addition to the £190,000 we received in October which we used to place 35 people in residential homes. This new money will be used for a variety of measures, including providing temporary convalescent beds, more intensive home care and more support and equipment for those with

disabilities.

"However, since this funding is only being made available on a one-off basis, we will continue to work with the Government to look at long-term solutions

to this issue."

An extra 6,000 nurses are working in the NHS this winter compared to last year, the Government was announcing today.

Prime Minister Tony Blair and Health Secretary Alan Milburn were giving details of the staff increases as they outlined their battleplan for averting another damaging winter crisis in the NHS.