THE Chancellor may have been congratulating himself this week in preparing the nation for substantial tax rises to pay for the NHS with barely a dissenting voice.

There now exists an all-party consensus that public services must improve and that improvement will have to be, for the most part, publically funded. The debate is about the degree of state funding and to what extent the private sector can be involved.

Absent from Mr Brown's Tuesday statement on the public finances were further mentions of "joined-up government", a favourite New Labour phrase suggesting broad thinking across government disciplines and departments. There is plenty of evidence locally that joined-up government seems to have been forgotten about.

We have reported in recent months the continuing problem of bed-blocking, both in North Yorkshire and in South Durham. The appalling situation where elderly, but not ill, people occupy much needed-hospital beds because local authority social services budgets cannot fund places in nursing homes has the potential to be a national scandal this winter.

Already in South Durham, the local NHS trust is warning that bed-blocking is compromising its ability to provide beds for seriously-ill people. More money for the NHS is not the answer. For social services it is

This mis-match in funding is hugely wasteful. It is far more expensive for someone to occupy a hospital bed than it is a nursing home place. The money Mr Brown is pumping into the health service is in danger of being frittered away because local authority budgets continue to be squeezed.

The smug look on Mr Brown's face this week may not last if this winter is a harsh one and takes its toll on the elderly population. If hospital admissions grind to a halt because large number of beds are blocked Mr Brown's smile may become a little wan.