Labour's mismanagement of the NHS has left thousands of patients to languish in hospital beds when they should be looked after by social services

Nicola Sturgeon SNP

The figures for bed blocking in Scotland crept up steadily last year.

However, the Scottish National Party said that the Scottish Executive had a record of failure on the issue.

"Labour's mismanagement of the NHS has left thousands of patients to languish in hospital beds when they should be looked after by social services," said health spokeswoman Nicola Sturgeon.

"This denies them the services they require and denies the NHS desperately needed beds."

'Radical overhaul'

And the Conservatives say that the system needed a radical overhaul.

Health spokeswoman Mary Scanlon said: "If the figures illustrate yet another increase in blocked beds, Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm must swallow his pride and concede that his simplistic approach has failed and was never likely to do anything other than fail."

She called on the executive to unify the health and social work budgets and give more power to local health care professionals.

Key areas

Mr McConnell announced the extra cash to tackle bed blocking last Wednesday, when he also unveiled a new spending strategy which aims to deliver in five key policy areas.

He told the Scottish Parliament that he wanted to focus on health, education, crime, jobs and transport.

From now on, his cabinet ministers could find their proposals vetoed if they fail to benefit at least one of these areas.