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NHS trialling Airbnb-style stays in people's spare rooms for patients recovering from operations

Prospective hosts can earn up to £1,000 a month

Wednesday 25 October 2017 23:52 BST

CareRooms is recruiting ‘hosts’ in Essex who could earn up to £50 a night (Getty)

NHS patients recuperating after a hospital stay may soon be put up in Airbnb-style accommodation in people’s homes, to ease the burden on hospital wards running at capacity, the Health Service Journal (HSJ) has revealed.

A pilot scheme called CareRooms, which will be trialled in Essex, will see around 30 patients waiting for discharge from hospital stay with local residents who have a spare room or annex.

CareRooms is recruiting “hosts” – who do not need any previous care experience – and they could earn up to £50 a night putting up people recuperating from a hospital stay.

However, concerns have been raised about the risk of abuse of patients. Health campaigners have warned that making sure vulnerable people are protected would be a “huge and risky task”.

Prospective hosts do need to go through security checks before they are approved for the scheme. They are also required to heat up three microwave meals each day and supply drinks, and are offered “host protection” as well as a helpline and training.

The company said it will transform spare rooms and annexes with a private bathroom into “secure care spaces for patients who are waiting to be discharged”, aiming to “provide patients with a practical alternative to hospitals and care homes to recuperate in”.

It adds: “Our hospitals are becoming increasingly full with patients who have nowhere to go. Your spare room and bathroom can be safely converted to allow patients to be discharged for a maximum of two weeks, for remote carers to look after them and for minimal impact and risk to your daily life.”

The news comes amid the crisis of delayed discharges in hospitals. Last week, Age UK warned that increasing numbers of elderly and frail patients are being “marooned” in hospital beds, despite being medically fit.

NHS figures show that last year, 2.2 million hospital “bed days” in England were lost due to delayed transfers of care.

NHS bodies in the county, along with local authorities, are in preliminary discussions over the project – which would see willing and eligible patients primarily recruited from Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. CareRooms said the “micro pilot” would involve just five to 10 hosts over a three-month period.

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The trial will not start until all parties are assured that the process is “safe or safer than standard practice”, it said.

Dr Harry Thirkettle, co-founder and chief medical officer for the website, said that around 30 patients would be involved.

He explained: “What we’re aiming towards is patients who just need short-term accommodating either before going home or going into long-term care. We are looking to find patients who are medically fit for discharge, who don’t have any cognitive impairments.

“The reason they would come to us is because they either live alone and don’t have support or they have mobility issues. So you can imagine someone who had a leg fracture and is unable to go up and down their stairs, so until that fracture is healed they could come to us and stay in ground-floor accommodation.

“The aim is to match the right patient to the right room.”

He said that some people may find the scheme preferable to staying in hospital.

“There is good evidence out there about the effects of long-term hospitalisation on people – they lose muscle strength and mass, it impairs their cognition,” he said. “We hope that by allowing people to be discharged to a home-like environment, quicker, that would give massive benefits for patients.”

Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis – except themselves

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1/6Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis – except themselves

Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis – except themselves

The elderly

“We acknowledge that there are pressures on the health service, there are always extra pressures on the NHS in the winter, but we have the added pressures of the ageing population and the growing complex needs of the population,” Theresa May has said. Waits of over 12 hours in A&E among elderly people have more than doubled in two years, according to figures from NHS Digital.

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Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis – except themselves

Patients going to A&E instead of seeing their GPs

Jeremy Hunt has called for a “honest discussion with the public about the purpose of A&E departments”, saying that around a third of A&E patients were in hospital unnecessarily. Mr Hunt told Radio 4’s Today programme the NHS now had more doctors, nurses and funding than ever, but explained what he called “very serious problems at some hospitals” by suggesting pressures were increasing in part because people are going to A&Es when they should not. He urged patients to visit their GP for non-emergency illnesses, outlined plans to release time for family doctors to support urgent care work, and said the NHS will soon be able to deliver seven-day access to a GP from 8am to 8pm. But doctors struggling amid a GP recruitment crisis said Mr Hunt’s plans were unrealistic and demanded the Government commit to investing in all areas of the overstretched health service.

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Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis – except themselves

Simon Stevens, head of NHS England

Reports that “key members” of Ms May’s team used internal meetings to accuse Simon Stevens, head of NHS England, of being unenthusiastic and unresponsive have been rejected by Downing Street. Mr Stevens had allegedly rejected claims made by Ms May that the NHS had been given more funding than required.

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Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis – except themselves

Previous health policy, not funding

In an interview with Sky News’s Sophy Ridge, Ms May acknowledged the NHS faced pressures but said it was a problem that had been “ducked by government over the years”. She refuted the claim that hospitals were tackling a “humanitarian crisis” and said health funding was at record levels. “We asked the NHS a while back to set out what it needed over the next five years in terms of its plan for the future and the funding that it would need,” said the Prime Minister. “They did that, we gave them that funding, in fact we gave them more funding than they required… Funding is now at record levels for the NHS, more money has been going in.” But doctors accused Ms May of being “in denial” about how the lack of additional funding provided for health and social care were behind a spiralling crisis in NHS hospitals.

Getty Images

Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis – except themselves

Target to treat all A&E patients within four hours

Mr Hunt was accused of watering down the flagship target to treat all A&E patients within four hours. The Health Secretary told MPs the promise – introduced by Tony Blair’s government in 2000 – should only be for “those who actually need it”. Amid jeers in the Commons, Mr Hunt said only four other countries pledged to treat all patients within a similar timeframe and all had “less stringent” rules. But Ms May has now said the Government will stand by the four-hour target for A&E, which says 95 per cent of patients must be dealt with within that time frame.

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Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis – except themselves

No one

Mr Hunt was accused of “hiding” from the public eye following news of the Red Cross’s comments and didn’t make an official statement for two days. He was also filmed refusing to answer questions from journalists who pursued him down the street yesterday to ask whether he planned to scrap the four-hour A&E waiting time target. Sky News reporter Beth Rigby pressed the Health Secretary on his position on the matter, saying “the public will want to know, Mr Hunt”. “Sorry Beth, I’ve answered questions about this already,” replied Mr Hunt. “But you didn’t answer questions on this. You said it was over-interpreted in the House of Commons and you didn’t want to water it down. Is that what you’re saying?” said Ms Rigby. “It’s very difficult, because how are we going to explain to the public what your intention is, when you change your position and then won’t answer the question, Mr Hunt”. But the Health Secretary maintained his silence until he reached his car and got in.

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However, campaign group Save Southend A&E told the HSJ: “We are shocked that an NHS trust is endorsing such a company ... offering beds in private residential homes opens a huge can of worms for safeguarding, governance and possible financial and emotional abuse of people at their most vulnerable time.

“It is almost weekly that there are reports of abuse and poor care in registered residential and care homes, therefore the monitoring of such ‘placements’ in private homes would be a huge and risky task.”

Dr Thirkettle, who is also a part-time A&E doctor, said that hosts have to go through a “vigorous” vetting process including a number of detailed interviews, providing at least three references and everyone over 18 in the property would have to undergo a DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check.

“On the host side we have a really vigorous vetting process that they have to go through,” he said. “We also have some technology safeguarding solutions as well – we will have sensors which are able to detect any time someone has been in or out of the room.

“We will have a 24-hour call centre; we also have a telemedicine GP service so all of the people in our rooms will be able to get a GP consultation within four hours.”

He said the scheme is still in “scoping phase” adding: “We are not starting until each one of those organisations is confident that this is safe or safer than standard practice.”

The website states that patients will be offered catering, a GP service, “premium entertainment”, specialist beds, “fall detection”, patient safety monitoring, rehabilitation packages, a private bathroom, door sensors and “CQC-certified care”.

The scheme was helped by NHS England’s Clinical Entrepreneur programme which helps frontline doctors realise ideas and develop their entrepreneurial aspirations.

A Department of Health spokesperson said: “This is a locally organised pilot scheme for patients following minor operations, not national policy.

"Any schemes such as these are subject to the strictest quality controls and regulations."

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