ABSTRACT
Intermediate care is a relatively new phenomenon but not a new idea. Concerns about meeting the needs of people who are in transition between hospital and home, or between home and long-term care, have been prevalent for many years. Community hospitals, community nursing and community-based therapists have for a long time promoted independence and worked towards preventing admission to acute or long-term care and towards facilitating discharge from hospital. What is relatively new is the increasing focus that the UK Government is now placing on the progression of patients through a range of health and social care services and the means by which it is attempting to influence the workings of this system through targeted policy initiatives.
