An NHS hospital has backed out of an Airbnb-style scheme to rent spare rooms in people’s houses for patients not well enough to go home.
Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust says it doesn’t intend to take part in the pilot “at this time” as it could compromise the safety and quality of patient care, The Independent reports.
The news comes amid reports about an NHS pilot plan involving various councils in Essex that would see patients billeted in strangers’ homes to tackle chronic hospital bed shortages. According to The Guardian, CareRooms, a start-up company, is working with the NHS and councils to finalise the plans.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
So-called “bed-blocking” - the long-term occupation of hospital beds, due to a shortage of suitable care elsewhere - has risen by 40% since 2016 and is estimated to result in as many as 8,000 deaths a year.
But while supporters of the pilot project say it will help ease beds shortages, critics have voiced fears about patient safety.
The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services told The Daily Telegraph that the plan “raised questions” about patient well-being.
The Care Quality Commission said it would be contacting CareRooms to determine whether the service falls under the “scope of regulation”.
Labour shadow social care minister Barbara Keeley called the idea “terrifying” and said it presented “clear safety risks”.
“The Tories’ care crisis is now so bad that private homeowners are being asked to help dig them out of it,” Keeley told Metro.
Under the pilot, homeowners can earn up to £1,000 a month to cook and care for patients recovering from minor procedures. Hosts would be subject to regular checks and would have to live up to food hygiene training standards. The trial is expected to include 30 patients awaiting discharge from hospitals.
-
Neanderthal gene ‘caused up to a million Covid deaths’Speed Read Genetic tweak found in one in six Britons means cells in the lungs are slower to launch defences
-
Legalising assisted dying: a complex, fraught and ‘necessary’ debateSpeed Read The Assisted Dying Bill – which would allow doctors to assist in the deaths of terminally ill patients – has relevance for ‘millions’
-
Vaccinating children: it’s decision time for the health secretary as kids return to schoolSpeed Read Sajid Javid readying NHS England to roll out jab for children over 12, amid fears infections will rocket
-
‘Vaccination blunts, but does not defeat’: exploring Israel’s fourth Covid waveSpeed Read Two months ago, face masks were consigned to bins. Now the country is in a ‘unique moment of epidemiological doubt’
-
Thousands told to self-isolate in Covid app pinging error, claims Whitehall whistleblowerSpeed Read Source says Matt Hancock was privately told of the issue shortly before he resigned as health secretary
-
Record 5.45m people on NHS England waiting listsSpeed Read Health chief warns that crisis is nearing ‘boiling point’ as backlog grows
-
Covid testing: the ‘great new game of holiday roulette’Speed Read On one day last week, the price of a private PCR test ranged from £23.99 to £575
-
San Marino is first European country to offer ‘vaccine vacation’Speed Read Tiny landlocked nation to give Russian Sputnik vaccine to paying tourists
