A care company is taking part in a pilot scheme to help ease hospital discharge delays.

Walfinch Home Care Southampton is supporting efforts to reduce hospital waiting times and free up beds sooner by helping patients return home more quickly.

The company is part of a pilot scheme using the Myra mobile app, which helps users find home care, equipment, and other services to support discharge.

Angela Harding, co-director and registered care manager at Walfinch Southampton, said: "We are one of the care companies offered on a new care co-ordination and support mobile phone app called Myra, which allows people to find home care, equipment, and other information that can help speed up their discharge.

"Delayed discharges mean ambulances are stuck outside hospitals waiting for beds to become available, planned treatments have to be cancelled and patients' health deteriorates, so we were delighted to be involved in this pilot scheme.

"It's a benefit to patients, care providers like us, and the NHS."

According to the Nuffield Trust and Health Foundation, an average of 13,815 patients per day were unable to leave acute hospitals in January 2025.

The most common reason for these delays—affecting 36 per cent of patients who had stayed seven days or more—was waiting for hospital and care transfer processes.

Walfinch Southampton expects to receive care referrals from hospitals in the city via the app.

The team can also promote their care services within hospitals and use training facilities, including patient dummies, hospital beds, and hoists.

Walfinch CEO Amrit Dhaliwal said: "The app is a great example of the way that technology can be used to improve health and care services, so that patients, the NHS and local communities benefit, while making Walfinch services more well-known in their local areas."

Managing director Laura Pineiro and Angela have also helped organise a care fair at St James' Methodist Church in Shirley, Southampton, to raise funds for Mountbatten Hospice.

Walfinch Southampton currently supports 23 clients and has a team of 15 carers, with plans to recruit more in the near future.