Step Down Hospitals
Years ago we had a thing known as 'Step Down Hospitals'. These were places where patients could recover before being sent home and, thus, free themselves from the main hospitals where they would be blocking beds.
The advantages of such places were many and all obvious: they would be staffed by trained nursing staff, the place would be more informal than a hospital, the costs would be lower than a main hospital and it enabled more vulnerable patients to recover fully without being discharged prematurely.
And we have this suggestion.
How would the carer feel about the patient, getting bored and restless, walking around the house in the daytime when they're not in? Who would change the patient's dressings and toilet them? Are three microwaved meals considered wholesome and nutricious when they are given each day and every day? What happens if the patient wishes to receive visitors? And what if the patient has a relapse, will the carer know the signs and will they be trained?
These Step Down hospitals used to be all over the country and they were nearly always fantastic and did their job perfectly. But they have been sold off over the years or just simply left to crumble.
It is these that the government should be reopening and not even considering this strategy.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
