IT IS fashionable in political circles to talk about "joined-up government" - shorthand for different state agencies working together rather than against each other.

At the Friarage hospital in Northallerton, and probably many other hospitals around the country, there is a desperate need for some "joined up government" to solve a problem we highlight today.

Mr David Thomas is 91 and has been in the Friarage seven weeks. Medical staff have done all they can for him. What he needs now is 24-hour nursing care.

That could be provided in a nursing home close to his family in Wensleydale. There are spaces available but, crucially, there is no social services funding available. He will, therefore, occupy a hospital bed for many months, at a huge cost to the state, waiting for the money to come through. During this time he will be blocking a hospital bed which could be taken by a patient with an acute condition and not receiving the attention he could be in a nursing home close to his family.

It is a farcical situation. It is not the hospital's fault and it is not North Yorkshire social services' fault. The Conservative-led county council has struggled with its social services budget for several years now and this is the effect of successive cuts.

Central government (Labour, of course) says it is up to North Yorkshire to manage its resources more effectively but it should acknowledge that starving one authority of funds only loads a disproportionate financial burden on another. At the end of the day the public purse is out of pocket and patients suffer.

This is not joined up government, more a case of disjointed politicking