‘Airbnb scheme’ to ease bedblocking
FAMILIES will be paid up to £50 a night to host NHS patients in their spare rooms under radical plans to tackle the bedblocking crisis.
Members of the public will be given cash to provide a clean environment and reheated microwave meals for guests recovering from surgery.
Under the proposals, households will take patients for around two weeks while they get back on their feet. The plan will place patients for up to five days a week, meaning host families could earn £1,000 over a month. No care experience is required.
The scheme has been likened to Airbnb, a website that allows members of the public to rent out rooms to holidaymakers.
It is being run by a private firm in Essex but will be funded by taxpayers and overseen by local NHS health trusts and councils.
It has been backed by senior health service officials and, if successful, could be adopted elsewhere in the country, including Scotland.
The Scottish Government said it had ‘no plans’ to introduce such a scheme but the firm behind it, CareRooms, said ‘branching out to Scotland’ would be ‘in consideration’ when it looks to increase its operation.
The first trial of the scheme will involve patients recovering from a hip or knee replacement who would otherwise have to stay in hospital until they were mobile.
CareRooms believes patients will recover far more quickly in family homes than in hospital. But critics branded the plans ‘risky’ and criticised the Government for failing to provide enough hospital beds.
Bedblocking rates in the NHS are at record levels and about 5,800 hospital beds are occupied by patients who are fit to be discharged. Hospitals are trying to clear the backlog amid anticipation of a severe winter flu outbreak. Yet many patients cannot look after themselves independently despite being medically fit.
The Essex scheme represents a radical attempt to address the issue. CareRooms insists families will be vetted before they can put up patients and their homes will have to meet hygiene and safety standards.
The firm says it will provide carers to visit the patients, install railings or other equipment and will deliver three microwave meals a day to be reheated. According to the company’s website, the scheme is aimed at providing a ‘safe, comfortable place for people to recuperate from hospital’.
It adds: ‘Our hospitals are becoming increasingly full with patients who have nowhere to go. Your spare room and bathroom can be safely converted to allow patients to be discharged for a maximum of two weeks, for remote carers to look after them and for minimal impact.’
The trial – uncovered by the Health Service Journal – will initially involve 30 patients recovering from fractures or operations who normally live alone.
It will be overseen by Southend University Hospital Foundation Trust as well as two nearby health trusts. NHS England’s former deputy medical director, Dr Mike Bewick, is an unpaid adviser.
The firm is working out exactly how it will be funded but it is expecting to charge health trusts and councils £100 per patient per night, of which half will go to the families. The all-in cost of £100 a night is cheaper than the cost of a hospital bed.
Barbara Keeley, Labour’s social care spokesman, said: ‘These services cannot be provided on such a casual basis.’
‘A spare room can be safely converted’