CONTROVERSIAL plans to charge North Yorkshire County Council up to £750,000 per year in "bed blocking" fines could be delayed by at least a year.

Plans to impose fines of up to £100 for every night an elderly patient spends in hospital "unnecessarily" are due to be debated in the House of Lords.

Conservative and Liberal Democrat peers say social services still lack the staff and care home places to tackle the problem.

They are confident of winning an amendment to the Community Care (Delayed Discharges) Bill that would delay the scheme until April 2004.

In a survey carried out by the Conservative party, North Yorkshire

estimated it will face fines of £750,000 per year, when the new system comes into force in April.

City of York Council, which would also face fines, did not take part.

Today, Health Minister Lord Hunt insisted peers would be wrong to attempt to delay the fines.

He pointed out older people who stay in hospital longer than necessary were more at risk of contracting fresh illness.

A City of York Council spokesman said: "Agencies in York are working very hard to address the issue. We do not believe fines are the best way forward."

Murray Naylor, deputy leader of North Yorkshire County Council, said: "A year's delay could allow a better solution to be arrived at."

The Government has announced that social services would get an extra £100 million for each of the next three years to help them end hospital bed-blocking.

Updated: 10:51 Monday, February 17, 2003