THE rallying cry of opposition parties that there is a "crisis" in this and a "crisis" in that has become so over-used that it has lost most of its impact.

So when Labour spokesman Liz Kendall talked yesterday about a "crisis in care" caused by blocked bed release in hospitals it was easy to feel that the language was masking the importance of the message.

There can be no doubt that the number of days that hospital beds have been taken up unnecessarily by patients who should have been released has increased significantly year on year.

The reasons behind it are less clear and certainly can't all be pinned on cuts to district nurses and community matrons and a lack of social care available for them in their own homes.

There is no doubt that cuts in local authority budgets have had a significant impact but the wide disparity in figures across the region is evidence that there is no simple answer here.

According to the NHS annual report issued last month, patients awaiting completion of assessment accounted for 18.7 per cent of total delays nationally and patient or family choice to stay in hospital rose to 13.7 per cent.

And why, for instance, was the increase in the number of "delayed days" in hospital beds up by 77 per cent in Bradford and 111 per cent in Leeds but down 37.8 per cent and 22.1 per cent in Calderdale and Kirklees respectively?

And surely the fact that the new Clinical Commissioning Groups have barely got their feet under the table - so are unlikely to have fully got to grips with the problem - must have been a factor?

What a shame that no-one from Bradford Council was available to explain and to clarify the disparities.