Providing free personal care for the elderly moved up the agenda in the Welsh assembly on Wednesday afternoon when Plaid Cymru called on the Assembly Cabinet to end the "postcode care lottery".

Plaid wants the Liberal Democrat-Labour administration to follow the example of Scotland by implementing the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Long Term Care.

The Assembly's Health and Social Services Committee discussed a proposal to extend free care provision to personal care when it met on Wednesday afternoon.

Dai Lloyd, Plaid's health and social services spokesman said the elderly in Wales needed a fairer deal from the Assembly and accused Labour of "penalising people for their misfortune and level of dependency".

"New Labour has created artificial boundaries between personal care in hospital and in residential homes, and between health care and personal care. This has led to inconsistencies, unfairness and a postcode care lottery where different authorities define nursing care in different ways," he said.

The provision of long term care for the elderly, and in particular the issue of free personal care, has caused repeated embarrassment for Labour since the Scottish executive was forced to accept the principle. The policy in Scotland was not adopted by Labour for the rest of the country, with the party arguing that the money could be better targeted.

The Welsh administration is developing a strategy for older people with the aim of producing a draft strategy by early 2002, with the aim of helping the elderly "to maximise their independence, potential and participation".

In a paper for the Health and Social Services Committee, the minister, Jane Hutt, notes that although much media coverage has concentrated on the Commission's recommendations on free personal care, there are many other recommendations which will have an impact on the financing and quality of care services.

Hutt has previously announced plans for nursing care to be free of charge but wrote in the paper to the committee that "I did not feel able to give priority to free personal care in view of the high cost involved, the small number of self-funders who would benefit and the fact that it would do nothing directly to improve the quality of care."

Free personal care should also be considered in the context of the older person's strategy with consideration of costs, definitions, demand, legal implications and the practical implementation being examined, argues Hutt.

Pressure is also likely to come from Labour's coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats. While the party's Welsh manifesto for the general election committed the party to providing only free nursing care, it added that this was a first step towards implementing the proposals of the Royal Commission, which included free personal care.