THE Evening Press asked me to explain why there are delays in discharging elderly people from York District Hospital to nursing and residential care homes.

I agree it is a serious problem, especially for the elderly people who are stuck in hospital when they want to move out, and it badly needs a solution.

I have raised the problem with the Department of Health in London and with York NHS Trust, North Yorkshire Health Authority and the City of York Council. In October last year I first put the funding problems to health minister John Hutton. He has increased the money available for long-term care.

Health authorities have received more than inflation and so have local councils. In his reply the minister said that City of York Council's social services standard spending assessment (SSA) was increased by 5.3 per cent last year, over double the rate of inflation and by a further 5.6 per cent this year.

The council points out that it is already spending more than its social services SSA, and of course there are other pressures on the council's money such as schools or for that matter, swimming pools. The health authority and the district hospital have put in some extra money on a short-term basis, but they say care homes are not really their responsibility.

The problem won't be solved by passing the buck, so in July I called the three bodies together to discuss what each is doing to solve the problem and to offer to make a further approach on their behalf to the Department of Health.

I congratulate the three bodies for working together on this problem. At the moment they are preparing a paper for me to put to the minister. I am keen for it to show how the resources already allocated by the Government are being used, because we will not get more help if we cannot show that the existing resources are being used efficiently.

Hugh Bayley MP,

House of Commons,

London.