NEARLY 130 hospital beds are being blocked across York Health Trust, the Evening Press has learned.

In addition "an average" of 130 non-urgent operations a month are being cancelled throughout the trust - though the cancellations are for a variety of reasons.

"There are many factors behind the cancellation of operations of which delayed discharge (bed blocking) is one," said trust deputy chief executive George Wood.

Of the mainly elderly patients "blocking" the beds, 52 are in York District Hospital, 26 in St Monica's, Easingwold, and Selby War Memorial, and 50 elderly patients with mental health problems in various community units.

They are waiting for a suitable place in a residential or nursing home to be found.

York MP Hugh Bayley is calling for a co-ordinated effort from the trust, City of York Council, North Yorkshire Health Authority and the Selby and York Primary Care Trust, to draw up a solution before the onset of winter - the traditional time for hospital bed crises.

While stressing that money was rarely the sole cause for delay, Mr Bayley said: "Nevertheless, funding appears to be the single greatest problem."

He told the Evening Press he wanted a paper explaining how cash had previously been spent, what was needed to meet this year's needs, and what steps were being taken to solve non-funding related problems.

Mr Bayley said then he would be keen to approach the Government in a bid for extra resources.

A meeting has been scheduled between City of York Council executive member for social services Bob Fletcher, and the health authority chief executive Barrie Fisher, to discuss making joint representations to the government on funding.

Jim Crook, the council's director of community services, said: "There is an issue of capacity, as York is a high demand area and one of the biggest importers of elderly people in the country. The bottom line however is funding."

Liberal Democrat social services spokeswoman Coun Sue Galloway said: "Obviously these figures are of concern. If this is the situation during the summer months, then what will happen in winter? This is a real problem here in York and elsewhere, and there is no new money being made available to deal with it."

Mr Wood pointed to a lack of funding and places in residential homes, adding: "It is a matter of serious concern and one that City of York Council, the Primary Care Trust, North Yorkshire Health Authority and ourselves are working hard to solve."

- A row broke out today after a National Audit Office report on the NHS revealed that the Government's drive to cut waiting lists had distorted the order in which patients are treated. More than half of consultants in England said they had been forced to treat less urgent cases at the expense of more seriously ill patients.

Updated: 11:05 Thursday, July 26, 2001