EAST Lancashire is to benefit from more than £1.8 million to free hospital beds currently occupied by old people recovering from operations for the treatment of new patients.

Health Secretary Alan Milburn told health authorities and councils they had to deal urgently with the problem of elderly patients occupying hospital beds because they have nowhere else to go.

Mr Milburn is offering £250 million nationally to tackle "bed blocking'' and hopes the cash will free up 1,000 beds this year alone.

Blackburn with Darwen council is to get £198,000 and Lancashire County £1,644,000.

The local authorities will have to make more use of the private and voluntary sectors, to provide facilities for the elderly outside hospitals in care homes through partnership with private firms.

They will work with NHS trusts to cut down on "bed blocking", where there are not enough places for older people to go when recuperating from surgery.

Mr Milburn also says the owners of care homes, complaining they are in financial trouble, should be offered three-year contracts so they have more stability.

The government have picked 50 "hot spot'' areas where bed-blocking is most serious and they will get the lion's share of the cash.

Blackburn-with-Darwen and Lancashire are not among the 50 but among another 100 local authorities also to get money to tackle the problem.

A report released this week showed Springhill House nursing home in Accrington had already put itself one step ahead of the scheme.

The home in Fairfield Street saw 75 per cent of it elderly patients, transferred from Queen's Park Hospital, recover so well they were able to go home.

A spokesman for the East Lancashire Health Authority said: "We welcome this extra funding.

"We are fortunate in East Lancashire that, thanks to good relations with social services, we do not have many delayed discharges."

John Thomas, chief exeuctive of Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley NHS Healthcare Trust, said: "The allocation of additional resources on a recurring basis to Social Service Authorities is most welcome.

"The Trust looks forward to working with its partners in the public, private and voluntary sectors.

"The money is for the first 12 months of a two-year project and the Health Secretary says local authorities will have that allocation matched in the following year provided they draw up proper plans to spend the money in conjunction with the private care sector and report back to the Department of Health on progress.

The 50 "hot spot" councils get half the total allocation of £250 million with the remaining 100 local authorities - where the problem exists but is not as serious as in the other 50 - sharing the remaining £125 million.