Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
From hospital to a spare room & care by stranger
£50 a night to host patients No need for any experience
PATIENTS will be farmed out to stay with strangers who have no care experience – in a desperate bid to solve hospital shortages.
The controversial plan comes after the Care Quality Commission said this month the care system is “straining at the seams” from a lack of staff and dwindling bed numbers.
The solution, offered by start-up firm Carerooms, is for householders to take up the slack and rake in cash.
It’s website says: “Earn up to £1,000 per month renting out your spare room.
“The role of a host is to welcome the patient, cook three microwave meals and drinks a day and offer conversation where appropriate. Everything else we arrange.”
Carerooms is recruiting “hosts” in Essex who could earn up to £50 a night, it says.
The firm said it will transform spare rooms into “secure care spaces”. The scheme, revealed by the Health Service Journal, will also offer training.
ABUSE
The trial will involve 10 hosts and 30 Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust patients over threemonths. Campaign group Save Southend A&E claimed the firm was already “handing out flyers at Southend Hospital”, offering £1,000 a month.
It said: “It opens a huge can of worms for safeguarding and possible financial and emotional abuse of people at their most vulnerable time.”
Shadow Care Minister Barbara Keeley warned the scheme was “frightening from a safeguarding point of view”.
NHS Digital said annual local authority social care spending rose by £556million in the past year to £17.5billion.
Carerooms, which is part of the NHS England’s clinical entrepreneur programme, would charge £100 to funders, pay hosts half and keep the rest for care costs and profits.
Medical director Dr Harry Thirkettle promised a “vigorous” vetting process.
Dr Thirkettle added: “We want patients who are medically fit for discharge, without cognitive impairments.”
Southend University Hospital chief Yvonne Blucher said: “Only preliminary discussions have been held.”
The Department of Health said: “This is a locally organised pilot scheme.”