West Norfolk could be getting its own 'care hotel' similar to one in Norwich
It's for patients who need extra support when leaving hospital
A ‘care hotel’ similar to the one soon to open in Norwich could be established in West Norfolk, hospital bosses have said.
Details emerged last month about plans to use a Holiday Inn on Norwich’s Ipswich Road to house patients who were not yet ready to be sent home, freeing up beds in hospital.
And the plans have attracted the notice of health officials in West Norfolk, who have floated the possibility of setting one up in their part of the county too.
At a Tuesday meeting of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s (QEH) board of directors, vice-chairman Alan Brown asked what strategic arrangements were in place to relieve the pressures not only on the hospital’s beds, but on ambulances too.
He pointed out that the average waiting time for an ambulance to transfer someone into the QEH’s emergency department was 54 minutes and that this had a “knock-on effect” for patients.
Mr Brown said: “It’s not about us alone, it’s about us being unable to discharge patients to free up those beds, to allow there to be flow within our hospital which ultimately means patients at home getting ambulances a lot quicker.
“I noted that there’s going to be a care hotel in Norwich – I wanted to seek your update and insight as to what arrangements are being considered in West Norfolk, again, to free up beds to allow people to receive care outside of hospital, to allow us to do the job we need to do about acute care.”
Caroline Shaw, the hospital’s chief executive, said there was important strategic work going on to improve the situation, but that some of the issues were “knotty” and longstanding.
And responding to Mr Brown’s question about the care hotel, she said: “The first one in Norwich is really a model for us to assess and treat as a pilot.
“If that works well, because there have been some challenges from other colleagues about the model, we’ll then look at options around our locality.
“So it’s all work in progress, but I think also what we need to understand as well, is that collective working is fine, but actually there is absolutely infinite demand for all our services.”
Although located in Norwich, the care hotel there will be open to anyone in Norfolk and Waveney.