Community Hospitals Across the Globe

Integrated Care Matters Webinars Series 11

When

16/09/2026

4:00 - 5:30pm London | 5:00 - 6:30pm Madrid

Presented by

This webinar explored the role of community and subacute hospitals in delivering integrated care, rehabilitation and intermediate care closer to home.

Co-hosted with the UK Community Hospitals Association, the session brought together international examples from Estonia, Malta and the UK, highlighting how different health and care systems are developing community-based models to support people with complex needs, improve patient flow and reduce pressure on acute services.

Speakers shared practical learning on person-centred care coordination, intermediate care, multidisciplinary working and the use of data and benchmarking to understand service capacity and performance.

The discussion also highlighted a number of common challenges across systems, including governance, funding, workforce, information sharing and delayed discharge. A recurring theme was that improving capacity is not simply about increasing the number of beds, but about strengthening coordination across health, social care and community services.

The webinar also reinforced the importance of designing services around the person, supporting independence and enabling more people to receive appropriate care closer to home.

Explore the webinar highlights, watch the recording and access the presentation slides below.

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Webinar Highlights

The webinar video

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Explore the presentations

Download the Opening Slides

Download Estonia Presentation

Download Malta Presentation

Download the UK Presentation

Estonia - Integrated care around the person

Krista Valdvee, Viljandi Hospital

Krista shared Viljandi Hospital’s experience of organising health and social care around the needs of the person.

The model brings together specialist and primary care, rehabilitation, social care and home-based services. A key feature is the use of health managers, who support people with multiple chronic conditions and social challenges by coordinating care across services.

Krista also highlighted the value of co-location, strong relationships between professionals and earlier identification of people who may be at risk of falling between services.

Key learning:

Services should be organised around the person rather than organisational boundaries.
Care coordination roles can help people with complex needs remain independent for longer.
Shared information and stronger connections between health and social care remain important challenges.

Malta - Developing intermediate care

Dr Francesca Farrugia, St Vincent de Paul Malta

Francesca shared Malta’s developing bed-based intermediate care model and how it is responding to the needs of an ageing population.

The service has expanded from a 16-bed step-up unit to 40 beds providing both step-up and step-down care, combining medical treatment, rehabilitation, medication optimisation and discharge planning.

Up to July 2026, the service had supported 891 admissions, with 86% of patients returning to their original place of residence.

Key learning:

Bed-based intermediate care can provide an effective alternative to acute hospital admission.
Rehabilitation and reablement should be central to supporting people to return home safely.
Multidisciplinary working is essential when supporting people with complex needs.
Capacity should be considered across the whole pathway, not simply in terms of hospital beds.

United Kingdom - What benchmarking tells us

Sarah Handby, NHS Benchmarking Network

Sarah used UK benchmarking data to explore the role of community hospitals within bed-based intermediate care and the pressures affecting patient flow.

The data showed that 86% of bed-based intermediate care is provided through community hospitals, with occupancy at around 93%.

A significant finding was that 26.7% of occupied bed days were being used by people who had already met the criteria for discharge, often because they were waiting for services such as social care, equipment or assessments.

Key learning:

Community hospitals are a significant part of the intermediate care pathway.
Increasing bed numbers alone will not solve capacity pressures.
Delayed discharge is often linked to wider system pressures outside the hospital.
Better data, shared records and stronger coordination across services can help improve patient flow.

Take home messages

Community hospitals have an important role in delivering integrated care closer to home.
Intermediate care can support independence, rehabilitation and safe discharge.
Improving capacity depends on better flow across health, social care and community services.
Strong relationships, shared information and effective coordination are essential.
Different countries use different models, but many face similar challenges around workforce, governance and funding.
International learning can help services identify practical approaches that may be adapted to their own context.