Re-imagining the hospital to home journey: a shared mission for the Seventh Senedd

Alex Myles, External Affairs Assistant, Community Housing Cymru

Though early days, there is consensus across the Seventh Senedd that – with an ageing population and finite NHS resources – the health service must shift towards prevention.

While solutions and interpretations differ, parties on either side of the political spectrum also recognise the severity of the housing crisis and the need for action.

Yet, despite home being the foundation of our health, the dots between health and housing are rarely joined up.

We all realise that a safe, warm home is essential for our well-being, but this becomes even more important when we are recovering from illness.

And we know that the best place for us to recover after medical treatment is at home, close to those we know in our local communities – surrounded by the people and things that make a place to live a home.

Yet, Wales’s housing crisis keeps people in hospital when they should be recovering in their own homes.

Research published by Community Housing Cymru (CHC) shows housing-related delays in hospital discharge are increasing. Since April 2023, the average delay for most patients in Wales has fallen from 50 to 45 days – a testament to the hard work of our NHS. However, for patients waiting longer than they should be because of housing issues, it has climbed from 63 to 76 days.

These delays are mainly happening because of two things: there is no suitable home available for the patient, or a patient’s current home is unsafe to return to. Worryingly, in some instances, a patient has no home at all to return to. Behind every statistic is a person or family trying to return to their community.

Delays in discharge can have detrimental effects on patients. Evidence from the Royal College of Nursing shows unnecessarily long stays in hospital increases the risk of infection and physical deterioration. Patients aged over 80 who remain in bed lose up to 10% of their muscle mass in just 10 days. Fewer than 50% of patients fully recover to preadmission levels within a year, with long hospital stays increasing the likelihood of falls, injuries and even readmission to hospital.

Ripple effect

It also has a major impact on the NHS itself, creating a ripple effect across the system – delaying ambulance handover times and increasing waiting lists for everyone else in Wales. This leads to an inevitable impact on the quality of care and staff morale with such pressures resulting in less time available to spend with newly-admitted patients who need rehabilitation.

There is a substantial financial cost here too. Based on the December 2025 data, the cost of housing-related delays to the NHS is equivalent to approximately £31,500 each night. This equates to £2.49 million spent annually in keeping people in hospital when they should be recovering at home.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Investing this money in social housing – the equivalent of the annual rent of over 400 social homes or over 1,000 adaptations to existing housing association homes – would allow people to return safely and then live independently in their own home.

Investment in housing

CHC is calling on the new Welsh Government to embrace a Hospital to Home mission; a mission that starts with investment in housing to allow people to return to their communities and free up vital NHS resources for those most in need.

At the moment, housing, health and care often talk past each other. This lack of integration, categorised by data sharing and communication barriers, accountability disagreements, and complex funding streams, is preventing a whole-system approach to patient care that ultimately keeps people away from home.

The Hospital to Home mission must bring together professionals from each sector – as well as people with lived experience of housing-related delays – to identify ways to work better together to reduce delayed transfers of care and realise what is possible in tackling shared issues as one team around the person.

CHC’s action plan, formed from recent discussions with leaders and experts in the area, highlights three key actions the Welsh government must take forward; establish shared accountability mechanisms between health, care and housing, expand community care and the “discharge to recover and assess” model and – most importantly – secure the funding needed to reduce housing-related delays.

An investment to increase the supply of social housing, specialist “step-down” care and vital physical adaptations to homes are all practical health interventions which support patient recovery, free up the NHS and enable more people to live well at home.

Housing emergency

To tackle the NHS crisis, we must  address the housing emergency with a bold, deliverable 10-year plan that not only increases the supply of affordable homes but invests in housing support services to help keep people out of hospital in the first place.

Housing is Wales’s ultimate prevention infrastructure. Investing in homes not only means better health but lower energy bills, stronger communities and a more resilient economy.

It is time for a long-term plan that recognises good health starts at home and warm, safe homes can change lives.