Hospitals discharge patients to privately staffed “care hotels” as they wait for social care

Hospitals in the south west of England have set up “care hotels” to allow them to discharge patients who no longer need to be in hospital but cannot yet be transferred into the social care system.

The hotels are staffed by live-in care workers provided by private homecare companies, and patients can expect to stay in the accommodation for around three weeks, although some stay longer.

The services have been introduced in the face of intense pressure, with the NHS trying to cope with the care backlog resulting from the covid pandemic, rising influenza and covid-19 cases, and workforce sicknesses and shortages.

Hospitals have been unable to discharge medically fit patients as they cannot obtain the further care they need. This has had a knock-on effect across the whole NHS, stopping the flow of patients from emergency departments onto wards and from ambulances into hospitals.1 In late December more than 36 000 hours were lost to ambulance handover delays in just a week.2

Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board told The BMJ that it introduced its care hotel, which is staffed by Abicare, in late November 2022 and expects the 30 patient facility to run until March 2023.

​​A spokesperson for the care board said, “Local health and care services are under significant pressure, and this temporary care facility delivered at a local hotel will help us to improve the ‘flow’ of patients through our hospitals by ensuring more people can be discharged as soon as they are medically fit to leave hospital.”

In Devon a 40 bed care hotel was opened in mid-October 2022. A spokesperson for NHS Devon said, “Care hotels are just one of many positive measures health and care partners have put in place to reduce pressure on busy health services this winter . . . Support is provided by a Care Quality Commission registered care agency, which complies with all infection prevention and control measures, protecting both care hotel and hotel guests.”

The BMJ understands that NHS Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Integrated Care Board is also considering setting up a similar care hotel facility, as it did last winter, though it is still in the early stages of discussion.

The problems caused by the lack of social care availability were not unexpected. Last summer NHS leaders warned that the lack of social care capacity was putting patients at risk, with nine in 10 telling NHS Providers that they expected the social care workforce crisis in their area to get worse this winter.3