Staff at privately-run care homes in Swansea Bay have started looking after NHS patients who are well enough to leave hospital but haven't got the support needed at home.
Swansea Bay University Health Board is buying dozens of care home beds in a bid to discharge patients who end up bed-blocking in hospital through no fault of their own.
Freeing those hospital beds speeds up the flow of patients in and out of hospital and can shorten ambulance handover times at emergency departments.
Health bosses aim to acquire 100 care home beds in Swansea and Neath Port Talbot in total for the winter period.
The cost is being covered by the health board and Swansea and Neath Port Talbot councils through a regional group, which also includes the independent sector and carers' representatives.
A health board spokesman said: "We have now reached an agreement with 10 care homes from which we can commission beds, depending on how many they have available at any given time.
"By the end of last week, we will have moved 33 patients into these care homes – fully utilising the beds currently available to us – three of whom have already been able to return home."
The spokesman said this was the equivalent of more than a ward of patients who would otherwise have been waiting for a package of onward care, or a long-term placement in a care home.
He added: "It is also a much better experience for them, as care homes have facilities such as day rooms and dining rooms that acute hospitals do not."
As of October this year there were around 250 patients in acute words in Swansea Bay who were well enough to leave but delayed from doing so.
The buying-up of care home beds was discussed at a health board meeting in November. Chief executive Mark Hackett said the intervention was urgently needed as winter and Covid pressures grew.
Mr Hackett said prolonged hospital stays didn't benefit these patients.
"They are at risk of picking up infections, have little opportunity to socialise and their fitness levels can suffer badly by not moving around enough," he said, speaking at the time.
Earlier this month, Swansea Council's director of social services, Dave Howes, said some of the care home beds acquired by the health board were no longer available because the care homes in question said they didn't have enough staff.
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