DESPITE its contingency plans to allay a feared winter beds crisis, if one occurs, the government can expect little political tonic to remain from the giant boost it announced today for NHS spending -- if only because the cash will arrive after the trauma of patients stuck on trolleys in hospital corridors has been gone through.

But apart from its increased commitment to improving NHS resources -- with the total budget for health authorities next year of £37billion being up by almost £3billion on present spending -- the government really does deserve credit for ensuring that areas with the greatest sickness get the biggest slices.

And for East Lancashire, with its record of high levels of heart disease and premature death, this brings a real boost.

For it has long been the case that NHS funding formulas -- to the frustration of health chiefs in socially and economically-deprived areas -- have failed to truly respond to the evident link between wealth and health.

Health Secretary Alan Milburn's announcement of a cash bonus for health authorities in poorer areas is long overdue. For East Lancashire Health Authority this means its allocation of £415million next year which is almost £33 million more than at present.

The package this year includes some £2 million targeted at the "big killers" of heart disease and cancer and reducing high infant mortality rates.

It is the injection of health needs and social conditions into the funding formula, which in the past has been based too much on crude head-counts and age levels, that is the real boost of today's announcement. And if the government does catch a political cold from a bed-crisis this winter, it will have set in train a long-term alleviation of East Lancashire's fundamental health problems -- even if it cannot cure the NHS's chronic condition of never having enough resources to meet demands.