'Breakthrough' Musgrove Park Hospital unit in Taunton trying to solve 'bed-blocking' problem
Watch Richard Payne's report here.
Staff at Somerset's biggest hospital say its new approach to solving the problem of bed-blocking could be the solution to ease pressure on demand for its beds.
Musgrove Park in Taunton is operating at close to capacity - but it's new 'Ready to Leave' unit aims to start patients' rehabilitation earlier to discharge them quicker and free up beds for those in urgent need.
Betty Fouracre, 100, was admitted more than four weeks ago with mobility issues.
She says she is ready to go home, but until she is allocated carers who can check in on her, she cannot leave.
She is one of the 28 elderly men and women in 'Ready to Leave' unit - which houses those who are medically fit to be discharged but awaiting support either at home or in a care home to be found.
Joanna Jackson, a senior physiotherapist at the hospital said: "We know there's a wait for those services in the community and there's a wait for those rehab beds so in the meantime they're all here in this unit and we're providing that support to get them fit enough to go home, fit enough to resume their lives or doing the rehab they'll get in their onward unit.
"Very often we find that by delivering it here we circumnavigate the need for it in another facility which is fabulous because then we can get people straight home from here."
Escaping the traditional ward, patients are encouraged to leave their beds, dress and spend time together, strengthening their physical and mental health.
More staff have been assigned for greater one-to-one care but just one doctor is needed.
Eileen Kearn spent two weeks in the unit after a fall.
She said: "I'm quite happy so long as I've got the phone and things at home and people quite near me."
"I think it's fantastic. I didn't know they had wards like this, you see. Haven't been in hospital for years."
At the other end of the hospital, it's a different story with too many people chasing too few beds in the 650-bed hospital.
The Emergency Department is calmer than in recent months, but it's still taking an average of 14 hours from being first seen to being admitted.
It takes on average 14 hours from first being seen to being admitted at the emergency department.
Dr James Gagg, a consultant at A&E, said: "The hospital is run at around 97% occupancy of its bed so there's very little room to manoeuvre.
"But the crux of it is very simple and that's to keep things moving and if you're going to keep anything moving through a system, especially a system that's fairly full, you've got to think about how to discharge people back out of of the hospital when their care has been delivered."
"We can have all the money in the world but we've still got to train staff, we've got to retain staff and our workforce is absolutely critical.
"To have had to train the workforce we need, we've got to invest in them, too."
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