FOR Old Labour stalwarts, it might be regarded as an ideological step too far -- towards privatisation of the sacred cow NHS -- but the government's plan to pay for elderly patients to convalesce in private nursing homes in order to free hospital beds for more urgent cases will generally be welcomed as a common sense step.

There is, of course, a dose of political medicine in the move. Coming at a time when Labour is being bruised in the ratings by the Tories' new populism -- on asylum-seekers and crime -- and with the council elections imminent, the government will be hoping to impress voters with the action to cut NHS waiting lists.

And with research showing that up to 20 per cent of acute beds are occupied by mostly-elderly patients who could be recuperating elsewhere and with thousands of operations being cancelled every year as a result, any scheme to untangle this costly and burdensome log-jam must have its merits.

Nor, when it comes ideological concerns, is this a radical departure -- the NHS has resorted to the private sector before now to ease waiting lists and through farming out of all kinds of hospital services, from portering to cleaning, and engaging in private finance initiatives for major developments, it is already strongly allied to the world of commerce. But in purchasing thousands of beds in private nursing homes -- even at the sort of economic rates that such large-scale contracts would command -- the NHS would be delivering a fat cash cow to the businesses in this field.

Patients in the queue for hospital treatment might welcome the benefits if waiting times are reduced by this departure, but taxpayers may balk at the notion of a long-term arrangement -- especially if millions of pounds of the extra money the government has pledged 'for the NHS' ends up being ploughed into the pockets of private shareholders.

After all, the malady the government is seeking to alleviate with this scheme is of the state's own making -- through the specious 'savings' sought from wide-scale closures of hospital beds and faster through-put in the remaining ones and bed-blocking by elderly patients ensuing also from inadequate funding of social services so that fewer have been able to convalesce through care in the community programmes.

The real cure may lie in opening closed NHS wards and beefing up social services budgets to re-open closed old folks' homes.