An inspection of a county's urgent and emergency services found delays were caused by a lack of empty beds and prolonged waiting times.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspected Gloucestershire emergency care services in November and December.
The report found staff worked well in challenging circumstances but the CQC said pressures on workers across the system needed addressing.
Dr Jeremy Welch said: "The system is being stretched and we need to adapt."
CQC deputy chief inspector for hospitals, Nigel Acheson, said: "We found the system to be complicated. As a result, staff and patients weren't always able to understand which urgent and emergency care service was best suited to their needs.
"This meant people sometimes attended the emergency department when they could have been treated more appropriately elsewhere."
In addition the report touched on adult social care and the possibility of using empty care home beds when hospitals were struggling to cope.
Dr Welch recognised "it's been a blinking tough time in care homes" over the pandemic and credited the relaxing of rules to allow visits but said there are other factors that would need to be considered.
However he added: "We've got enough beds when we map across, it's just getting patients through the hospital and home because home is where they want to be."
Source: BBC News, 17 March 2022
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