University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust is transferring patients to the Village Hotel in Bournemouth to free up beds.
As severe demand across hospital services continues the Trust is moving up to 16 patients who are medically ready to leave but need support in the short term before returning home.
This is a temporary measure to help ease the flow of patients throughout the hospitals which will help with waiting times in the hospitals’ emergency departments and with the ongoing recovery of elective surgery following the Covid-19 pandemic.
The care of the patients in the Village Hotel will be provided by Abicare, a CQC registered care provider, which is already running similar services in four hotels in England.
Mark Mould, chief operating officer of UHD, said: “Our hospitals are the best place for acute care for our patients. However, when patients are medically ready to leave, we should do all we can to support this to help free up the space for new patients and ease the pressure on our staff. This is also better for the ongoing recovery of our patients.
“Working with our partners, we are very pleased to offer this temporary solution as we know the Village Hotel is a much better environment for the patients who are ready to leave our hospitals and even though their ongoing care demands are low, they will be very well looked after by Abicare. This has been a fantastic achievement to get this service ready for our patients so quickly and I thank everyone who has been involved.”
Anne-Marie Perry, the chief executive of Abicare, said: “We are very pleased to be able to work with UHD on this proactive short-term solution to help ease the pressure on their hospitals. We are running similar services for other hospitals in the south and know that by helping even a small number of patients leave can make a significant difference to the performance of hospitals and can help enormously with the timely care of other patients.”
Village Hotels said “Our hotel in Bournemouth is based directly opposite the Royal Bournemouth Hospital so is perfectly placed to help. We have a long relationship with the hospital and this has helped with the planning and organisation needed to ensure that the patients coming to our hotel will receive the best possible care. As a brand, we pride ourselves on supporting the local communities in which we operate, so we are delighted to be able to offer our bedrooms to patients to recuperate.”
