EMPTY FOR 3 YEARS £5bn plan to end NHS bed blocking
Patients get rehomed’ with care packages
A BOLD plan costing nearly £5billion is unveiled today to end the NHS hospital bed blocking crisis.
The scheme, a brainchild of ex-Labour minister Phil Woolas, involves building or refitting 35,000 properties that only hospitalised over-60s can move into.
Mr Woolas wrestled with the problem of bed blocking when he was Whitehall’s local government supremo in 2006-8.
Now he heads up the consortium Hope Living, which aims to raise £4.75billion from investors over seven years to spend on suitable accommodation. It is hoped the scheme could save the NHS £1billion a year. Mr Woolas said: “I first had this idea when I faced constant demands to solve the crisis. “The savings this can generate for local authorities can be ploughed back into social care.” The plan would see the NHS liaise with social services when a patient is only in hospital because they can’t go home. Many such people struggle with issues like stairs and toilets or live too remote for access to care.
They would be provided with flats or bungalows costing £120 a week – compared to £1,900 in hospital and £530 in a care home.
Health minister David Mowat is now studying the plan, the first phase of which will start with refurbishing existing sheltered accommodation in Manchester.
The city council’s social care leader Cllr Paul Andrews said: “If this does what it says on the can we’ll be very interested.”