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A new chair-based exercise programme to help older patients keep moving while in hospital is being rolled out at Peterborough City Hospital.

Instead of staying tucked up in bed on a ward, patients who are fit to move to a bedside chair are being encouraged to get up and dressed in readiness for some specialised exercise sessions to music. This includes upper and lower limb exercises, playing catch with beach balls and throwing hoops on to a cone – all aimed at ensuring patients don’t lose muscle tone while being cared for in hospital.

The sessions, devised by the Acute Medicine Therapy Team, and delivered by the hospital’s volunteers and ward teams, have proved a hit with patients – from both a physical and mental health perspective.

Teresa Stratton, Falls Specialist Nurse, who oversees the sessions, said: “It is wonderful to see this initiative having a positive impact on our patients. We run the sessions twice a week on two pilot wards at present, but our aim is to eventually do this on other wards where older patients are cared for – and to do it every day. 

“Our Therapy team saw this idea being delivered in a care home in Sweden and adapted it for us to pilot. I am really pleased at how our volunteers, health care assistants and apprentices on the two wards have embraced the idea.

“It has been humbling for me and the ward teams to see some of our more frail patients becoming energised and involved in these sessions. The feedback from patients and their families has been fantastic – it really brings the ward to life.”

The effect of just a few days in a hospital bed can be more severe and rapid for an older person, affecting loss of muscle tone which can take several months to regain and impact their mobility upon leaving hospital. By keeping moving, a patient’s deconditioning can be slowed down resulting in improved patient outcomes as they are able maintain their independence and have a shorter stay in hospital.