Patients could be placed in hotels to ease NHS crisis

Patients fit to be discharged but requiring care in the community could be placed in hotels in a bid to free up hospital beds and reduce pressure on the NHS.

The Department of Health and Social Care yesterday (9 January) announced £200m of funding for the purchase of short-term care placements to allow people to be discharged from hospitals.

A spokesperson for the department told The Caterer that it would be up to local NHS bodies to determine the settings for community care, suggesting this could include care homes, hospices or private hospitals, but not ruling out the use of hotels.

The government has said there are currently around 13,000 people occupying hospital beds in England who are fit to be discharged.

Patients would be placed in community settings for a maximum of four weeks.

Health and social care secretary Steve Barclay said: “The NHS is under enormous pressure from Covid-19 and flu, and on top of tackling the backlog caused by the pandemic, Strep A and upcoming strikes, this winter poses an extreme challenge.

“I am taking urgent action to reduce pressure on the health service, including investing an additional £200m to enable the NHS to immediately buy up beds in the community to safely discharge thousands of patients from hospital and free up hospital capacity, on top of the £500m we’ve already invested to tackle this issue.

“In addition, we are trialling six National Discharge Frontrunners – innovative, quick solutions which could reduce discharge delays, moving patients from hospital to home more quickly.”

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