As many as 50 patients a night are being forced to stay in Kingston Hospital unnecessarily because there is nowhere else for them to go.

"Norovirus cases" and "staffing issues" over the winter months have cut the amount of available beds in community hospitals, according to a report due to be delivered to board members next Wednesday by new chief executive Kate Grimes.

She says: "The trust has 39 escalation beds open but is still finding occasions when there are no beds and patients are remaining overnight in A&E.

"There are usually more than fifty patients who are fit to leave the hospital but who cannot be discharged because of a lack of availability of appropriate services in the community.

"The systems of unscheduled care across the health economy need improvement and I am currently working with the chief executive of Kingston Primary Care Trust to agree how we best establish some work to improve this situation."

The Primary Care Trust cut the number of beds at Tolworth hospital in 2006 from 72 to 50 to save £1 million but may have more capacity if it moves them back to Surbiton Hospital as part of its planned redevelopment.

A spokesman for Kingston Primary Care Trust said: "I don't believe there are problems with Tolworth Hospital. A lot of the people who are waiting are trying to get into a nursing home or residential care rather than rehab in the community hospital."

In her first report since starting the job, Mrs Grimes also revealed she wants to stop leasing Hanover House in Coombe Road to save money and move the chief executive's office into a vacant space in the Wolverton Centre, next to the hospital. The hospital is still struggling to make £6.5m savings by the end of the financial year.

In the meantime she has taken an office on the fourth floor of the Esher wing to make herself more accessible to staff, patients and the public.

Kingston Hospital's board meeting will take place in public on Wednesday, January 28 between 10am and 12pm.