HEALTH Secretary Alan Milburn has admitted that hospital bed blocking figures have gone up in the North and Yorkshire regions - against the national trend.

During Commons exchanges, Darlington MP Mr Milburn was attacked by Tory Health spokesman Liam Fox for saying that elderly people would prefer to be cared for in their own homes, not "banged up" in care homes.

Dr Fox said it would have caused "huge offence to many dedicated staff who look after elderly patients".

The minister was answering a question from Anne McIntosh, Tory MP for Vale of York, who said delayed discharges in the area - often caused by elderly patients unable to be found care home places - had increased by 20 per cent.

She asked: "Are you also aware that there is a particularly acute problem for the elderly and mentally infirm patients, who have nowhere to go. What are you going to do to address the problem of lack of funding, particularly for personal social services; and for a lack of co-ordination between those primary and acute health care provisions and social service departments?"

Mr Milburn told her it was true that in some parts of the country there were problems with capacity in nursing and residential care homes - "and I think that is true in your part of the world," he said.

There were three things needed to put the problems right, he said: *l More investment for social services, which the Government was providing

* Focusing on not just more residential care places but caring for people at home. "We need to respect what most elderly people want with a mental health problem, which is not to be banged up in a care home, but to be cared for in their own homes," he said.

* Relationships between primary care trusts and acute hospitals. "We have provided the legislation to get these organisations working together."