New service frees up much needed beds in hospitals

Paul Gaudin, the founder and CEO of The CareRooms Ltd, has announced the launch of CareRooms to the UK market. The death of his father in 2016, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease and was being cared for by his mother, inspired Paul to research and develop a new care solution.

CareRooms.com enables patients who are medically fit and ready to be discharged from hospital, but are stuck there due to the lack of an available or suitable care facility (whether a Care-home, family home or local authority facility), to now recover in a quiet, homely and appropriately safeguarded environment, in a private home in their community.

Paul’s research showed a severe lack of capacity in the care market and he realised that the solution matches capacity with need without the delay and significant capital expenditure needed to build more care homes. His own personal experience with his mother also showed him that this idea would help hosts to avoid social isolation and loneliness issues and give them purpose again, as well as the opportunity to top up their income, which is often diminished due to ‘means tested’ self-pay care requirements.

New research conducted by YouGov in February 2018, has shown that 79% of adults in the UK think that local authorities should look for innovative new solutions to improve patient care after patients have left hospital. CareRooms is a new idea to help former patients recover in comfort and to help local authorities provide suitable recuperation facilities.

Hospitals may not always be the best place for patients to recover, presenting multiple risks to the patient such as infection, muscle wastage and cognitive impairment. The British Red Cross recently reported that frail and vulnerable patients are being trapped in an endless cycle of going in and out of hospitals and recent Healthwatch research shows that the number of people being readmitted to hospital within 48 hours of discharge, now accounts for one in five of all emergency readmissions.

It is clear that new solutions are needed and CareRooms plans to bring significant additional ‘post-discharge’’ capacity to communities and Local Authorities, which will free up beds in hospitals and social care systems and prove beneficial for the UK’s health economy.

NHS England’s data for 2017 shows that there were over 2.1 million delayed transfers of care. That is 2.1 million bed nights lost that could have been available for new patients to be admitted and treated; the equivalent to ten, 580 room hospitals. Studies have also shown that the current narrow definition of delayed transfers of care significantly understates the number of patients that are medically fit and ready to be discharged so the capacity deficit could be much larger.

In the ADASS Budget Survey Report 2017, prevention makes up 6.3% of Local Authority budgets, with solutions such as ‘step-up’ care as an example where CareRooms can support.

As well as the positive impact on patients and our precious health service, CareRooms has additional, equally important social benefits. Hosts will benefit from renewed purpose and reduced social isolation, which has been recognised as a major health issue in the UK, and the additional income for hosts will assist in topping up their pension income at a time in their lives when financial pressures are being felt, especially when a ‘loved one’ has been lost.

It is important to note that under CQC regulations, CareRooms and the hosts are legally not allowed to provide any personal care services. If and where this is required, then it must be provided by the patient’s medical team or commissioned directly by the patient.

CareRooms is now commencing host recruitment, vetting and training in Cambridgeshire and is in discussions with a number of local authorities, across the UK, to provide vital room capacity.

Interested potential hosts can register HERE 

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