According to a report the NHS should setup bingo sessions, art classes and provide a better level of scenery to patients in hospital. This would reduce in-patient times at hospital and would save money. It would help beat the boredom, depression and social isolation of being in hospital, doctors' leaders are urging.

The new report from the BMA’s Board of Science suggests such initiatives would speed up the recovery of patients. Hospitals should do more to prevent those receiving treatment from simply lounging around in their pyjamas in bed for much of the day.

"Hospitalisation presents specific stresses over and above those associated with illness, ranging from environmental factors such as unfamiliar surroundings to the lack of privacy and independence, and uncertainty about ill-health outcomes," the report suggests. "When a patient's needs are not met it may affect their emotional state."

"a significant proportion find their emotional and social coping mechanisms are challenged. Physical illness can have profound social and emotional consequences,"

Dr Vivienne Nathanson, the BMA's head of science and ethics, added: "Some simple and inexpensive soft, non-clinical things – such as getting more daylight in, planting some trees outside the ward, or encouraging patients to wander around a bit – can help shorten a patient's time in hospital and reduce their demand for pain relief.

"So there's clearly a clinical, and potentially financial, justification for the NHS to ask which of these things each unit can do, within the hospital's budget of course."

Further evidence from Salisbury District Hospital in Wiltshire where volunteers play card games, lay on bingo sessions and read newspapers with patients on the elderly care ward, and those who have had strokes shows depression among participants has fallen, patient satisfaction has risen and length of stay on the two wards has dropped by 25%.