New £19m therapy unit 'reduces hospital returns'

A therapy facility has helped to discharge patients quicker and reduce the amount of hospital returns, its staff said.

The Willow Therapy Unit, based at Norwich Community Hospital, is a 48-bed ward which opened in March 2025 after a £19m investment from the NHS.

Staff work with other services, including acute hospitals and adult social care, as part of what is known as an "integrated care partnership".

Abbey Cummings, team manager for adult social care at Norfolk County Council, said: "We have much fewer failed discharges from a unit like this with an integrated approach compared to different hospitals that do not have that integration."

The intermediate care unit is one of five in-patient facilities in Norfolk run by the East of England Community Health and Care NHS Trust (EECH&CT) and accounted for 31% of discharges over the past year.

The trust said in the last year, 659 people had been discharged from the unit, with 572 returning to their usual place of residence with additional support.

It added that patients at Willow are more likely to return home than those at other rehabilitation wards, with about 56% of people discharged home, with or without support, compared with 41% elsewhere in the county.

"The integrated model ensures we have everybody's [medical] picture and means they can leave the acute hospital earlier and have the recovery period here to get them home," Cummings added.

Linda Dickens, a patient at the unit, said she had to relearn how to walk and be independent again after being in hospital for three weeks.

"I wouldn't have been able to do anything myself, and I would have been totally alone, and I don't think I would have survived it," she said, talking about if she had gone straight home after being in hospital.

"This unit has been a godsend, not just for me, but for hundreds of people who have entered the system."

NHS data on delayed discharges showed that on an average day across England in 2025-26, 88% of patients were not discharged when they were ready to leave intermediate care settings.

For NHS Norfolk and Waveney patients during 2025-26, the estimated number of patients who remained in intermediate care settings, who could have been discharged, was 90% on an average day - equivalent to 61 people.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "Around one in five beds are occupied by patients who are ready to leave hospital, which is far too many.

"That is why hospitals, community services and local councils should work together to get patients home faster, free up hospital beds, and prioritise those facing the longest waits."

Kirsty Rowden, director of intermediate care and urgent community response at EECH&CT and Norfolk Adult Social Services, said the integrated approach had made a "big difference".

"We have a number of rehabilitation units across the county that we run, what is different here is the therapy offer, and we have really seen a difference in that," she added.

"We are getting people home much quicker than they would do otherwise, and we know it is that intensive therapy support."

Norfolk County Council spent about 50% of its budget in 2024-25 on adult social care, excluding education.

The authority said it had put aside £728m for Adult Social Services as part of its 2026-27 budget.

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