Health chiefs plan to replace them with a 'supported care service', where community teams will care for people in their own homes.

North Norfolk Clinical Commissioning Group believes some people who are medically-fit are staying in hospital when they could be cared for at home.

It is carrying out a review of how beds are used at Cranmer House, on Norwich Road, with Norfolk County Council. It will include consulting staff and patients, and a public meeting in Fakenham next month.

In a statement, the commissioning group said: 'As part of the work planned, potential changes will be made to the services provided at Cranmer House in Fakenham, which currently has 13 NHS-funded nursing beds offering rehabilitation care and 20 social care beds funded by Norfolk County Council for reablement and respite care.

'Nothing will change immediately and beds will remain available to all people who need one at Cranmer House while work takes place to develop and reshape the existing community-based teams which already play a key role across the locality.

'As the new service is developed, it will gradually be used as an alternative to Cranmer House where appropriate.'

Dr Anoop Dhesi, chairman of the commissioning group, said: 'This is a continuation of our ongoing work to develop integrated health and social care across North Norfolk and rural Broadland – modernising and reshaping services to meet local needs and ensuring that patients are not admitted to acute hospitals unless it is clinically appropriate to do so.

'As part of this, we aim to reduce the number of medically-fit patients who remain in hospital when they don't need to just because they need ongoing support to recover from their illness or injury.

'This will, in turn, help to ensure that people who require urgent emergency care at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and other local hospitals can be admitted without delay.

'Our aim, along with our partners, is to ensure that we provide better outcomes for patients while meeting the challenge of delivering sustainable, effective and high quality care.'

Dr Dhesi said community care teams already operated successfully in West Norfolk and Norwich.

'The work taking place is being driven by the need to develop new models of care. The long-term aim is to ensure that more local people can stay well and live independently,' he added.

Staff who work at Cranmer House - who are employed by Norfolk Community Health Care and Norse - will be consulted. It is not clear whether there will be any redundancies.

The commissioning group said: 'They will be consulted on any proposed changes to their current roles and there will be various new job opportunities which are likely to be available for all.'

Day care for people with dementia will continue at Cranmer House.