THE crisis in accident and emergency care at York and Scarborough Hospitals shows no signs of easing.

More than 3,000 patients attended emergency departments at the two hospitals over Christmas. Many could not be treated within the four-hour target time. In Scarborough, a major incident has been declared: York is little better.

It is not only York and Scarborough that are experiencing these problems, however.

Waiting times in A&E departments across England are the worst in more than a decade. The Royal College of Nursing says the health service is “in crisis”. So what has gone wrong?

Partly, it is people going to A&E when they don’t need to. There has also been the traditional Christmas bulge in A&E cases, plus difficulties recruiting staff for an “unpopular speciality”.

But the troubles go deeper .

Alastair Turnbull, medical director of York Teaching Hospital Trust, says part of the problem is down to cuts in social care spending. This means patients ready to leave hospital cannot go, because the home care they need is not available. At any one time, York Hospital had 20 patients waiting to leave who could not be discharged, he said.

Mike Padgham, chair of the Independent Care Group in York and North Yorkshire, echoed that.

“Older people are in hospital beds because there is not the right care for them if they were discharged,” he said.

What we are seeing is austerity cuts biting.

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt and chancellor George Osborne must take note.

It makes no sense to keep patients in expensive hospitals when they could be looked after better and more cheaply at home.

Social care funding needs to be made available so the bed-blocking that is causing this crisis can be reduced. That makes economic as well as human sense.