Tracy Whale, the divisional chief nurse for medicine at Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust, said: “We know that an acute hospital is not the right place for a lot of our patients that need time to recover, people need to be at home.
“We know that people are less active when they are in a hospital bed, and that can lead to deconditioning, which means things like mobility is reduced, appetite is reduced and ultimately people become more frail than they were prior to coming into hospital.”
Like all trusts, Hampshire Hospitals is urging people to think carefully about whether patients need to come into accident and emergency and to think about where else they can access support in the community.
If you are admitted to hospital the advice is to have a plan for discharge early to help free up beds.