NHS bosses examining plans to treat patients in 'health hotels'

[Northerner]

NHS bosses are to study plans for thousands of patients to be treated in new "health hotels" rather than on wards in an effort to relieve the growing pressure on hospital beds. NHS England will examine the feasibility of letting some patients stay in hotels at or near hospitals. Supporters say such arrangements, which are common in Scandinavia and the United States, are cheaper for the NHS and more patient-friendly, as those undergoing treatment have more freedom and can see relatives more often.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/apr/23/nhs-treating-patients-health-hotels

 

[Copepod]

This is not a new idea, but it's a good one - for the right people.

In mid 1960s, we met woman we soon came to know as Auntie Kit. She was an orphan, brought up in a children's home, who later joined RAF / RRE, although she had retired by the time we met. We met as she knitted something for every baby christened (including me and later my yougner sister) at the Methodist Church attended by her and my parents in Malvern, My parents invited her to Sunday lunch, apparently the first time any family had done so, and she continued to be part of our family for many years. After we moved to Birmingham in mid 1970s, she got breast cancer and was treated in Selly Oak Hospital, so she was accommodated by hospital in a hostel next door, so that she didn't have to travel daily back to her home in Worcestershire (at least 1 hour by car / bus / ambulance) nor to our home in south east Birmingham (at least 30 mins each way).