A dramatic rise in hospital admissions in the London Borough of Hackney has led to concerns that some older people are being discharged too early.

Mary Cannon, of Age Concern Hackney, said there was a "strong feeling" locally that some older people were being discharged from hospital too quickly, and not being given a proper choice about the form of care in the community they received.

Hackney has been pioneering the development of intermediate care to rehabilitate older people discharged from hospital since the late 1990s. But the introduction of fines, combined with a 13 per cent surge in the past year in admissions to the borough's only hospital, Homerton, has put extra pressure on the system.

"People may be in hospital, which is not the best place for them, but will then be moved somewhere they maybe don't like and don't want to be," Cannon said. "We need to shape care around the individual's needs at whatever stage they are at."

Hackney Council's Michelle Quinn admitted the system was under pressure but felt it was important to get older people out of hospital as quickly as possible.

"If they stay in hospital longer than 10 days you start losing living skills," she said.