Portsmouth could get 20 extra care beds to ease pressure on Queen Alexandra Hospital

Portsmouth could get 20 extra care beds to ease pressure on the city’s hospitals and rising bed care demand.

Portsmouth City Council has approved feasibility studies to explore creating discharge-to-assess beds, which would allow patients who are medically fit to leave hospital to move into a care setting while they recover.

The move comes amid growing pressure on hospital beds, with council officers recommending greater use of the city’s residential and nursing homes to tackle delayed discharges.

Queen Alexandra Hospital continues to face high operational and demand pressures, including high bed occupancy, delayed discharges and rising demand for emergency care.

Demand for bed-based care is expected to rise as the population ages, with residential places projected to increase from 396 last year to 492 by 2040, while nursing care places are expected to rise from 266 to 343 over the same period.

A residential home (or care home) helps with daily personal tasks, while a nursing home provides round-the-clock medical care by qualified nurses.

The council’s director of adult social services, Andy Biddle, said the independent care sector is “fragile with limited capacity” due to rising costs, few modern care homes and a reliance on out-of-city placements, which are of “particular concern for our residents who identify very strongly with our city”.

Independent residential homes are operating at 86 per cent occupancy and nursing homes at 89 per cent, according to a council report.

He said that the council providing 20 additional discharge-to-assess beds would “improve patient flow” out of the hospital and would be up and running by December, pending financial modelling and feasibility studies.

The studies would assess the viability of providing the 20 beds in available space at Harry Sotnick House on Cranleigh Avenue, Buckland, and Shearwater on Moorings Way, Southsea.

Dual registration between those two care homes will also be introduced to provide “more stability” to residents who might need to move.

Mr Biddle explained that while it was previously cheaper to find places in the independent care sector, the industry has changed and beds have “disappeared through care home closures”.

He added that it’s now “at least equal to, if not more effective financially, to use our own provision.”

He added that Harry Sotnick and Shearwater are purpose-built, with ensuite facilities, wheelchair turning circles and ceiling hoists, which are hard to find in the independent sector as the “majority” of independent care homes are converted houses.

He also outlined the increasing complexity of need, as people are entering care homes “later in their care journey” due to the amount of care provided at home.

Councillor Joe Standen described Harry Sotnick House as an “amazing place” which rehabilitated his grandmother so “she could spend the final months of her life at home”.

Cllr Matthew Winnington said the extra beds are “important” to allow people to not only “get people out of hospital but rehabilitate them ready to go home.”

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