Take the recent case of Delano Regional Medical Center (DRMC), an acute care hospital in California.

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It is hoped the availability of 400 additional acute care hospital beds and 600 extra beds in nursing and residential homes will ease the problem of "bed blocking".

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All acute-care hospital trusts are supposed to become eligible for these freedoms by 2008.

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He said a "key task" of the trust was to move patients who no longer required acute medical care out of hospital quicker.

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In the study, one on-call paediatrician was questioned in every hospital providing acute in-patient care for children.

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When stroke patients are admitted to hospital, they receive acute stroke care.

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Acute care for mental health in-patients at Downe Hospital and the Ulster Hospital could be transferred as part of an overhaul of services at the facilities.

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It has promised to shorten hospital waiting times and to increase the number of acute-care beds.

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It says that use of the independent sector represents 0.4% of the total acute spend (acute covers all spending on hospital services with the exceptions of maternity, care of the elderly, mental health and learning disability).

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Of the total complaints about hospital and community care, 77%, or 6, 235, related to acute services in hospitals.

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