THE pressure has been taken off of Kent's bed-blocked hospitals by the Secretary of State for Health.

Alan Milburn has announced that Social Services will have to pick up the tab for elderly people who are stuck in hospital when they should be in care homes.

The first bindications were that the proposal would give a huge boost for cash-strapped local health chiefs.

The Kent Messenger wrote to Mr Milburn in November, drawing the Minister's attention to the plight of the county's elderly who were stuck in hospital because there were no care homes for them.

The problem was costing Kent's hospitals hundreds of thousands of pounds that could have been spent on thousands of operations.

At the same time, Kent County Council called on the Government to give it more money to meet the higher prices care homes were charging.

Mr Milburn said he would be pumping more money into Social Services to help solve bed-blocking. He added, however, that in future Social Services would be held financially responsible for elderly patients, if they were fit to leave hospital but could not be found a care home place.

The announcement was welcomed by Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust. It has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds caring for elderly patients who were fit to leave hospital, but could not be found places in care homes.

Val Thompson, the trust's director of operations, said: "This will certainly help reduce the pressure bed-blocking has put us under and help us financially as well."

Cllr Sandy Bruce-Lockhart (Con), leader of Kent County Council, said Mr Milburn's decision to award an extra £1 billion to all local authorities next year for social services was a step in the right direction, but would merely cover their current overspend.

He said KCC would be taking a close look at Mr Milburn's plans to penalise authorities for failing to tackle bed-blocking.

He added: "As we understand it if councils reduce bed-blocking they will have the freedom to invest any extra resources but if the figure goes up they will incur costs."