NHS to trial ‘Airbnb-type scheme’ for patients who have had surgery

Under an Airbnb-type scheme the NHS is piloting, members of the public could be paid up to £1,000 a month for renting their spare rooms to patients recovering from surgery.

A new company, CareRooms, is working with the NHS and councils in Essex to pilot the model and finalise how it will work.

The scheme aims to offer an alternative to hospitals and care homes for patients who have had minor surgery, but it has come under fire from medical professionals and social workers.

The company said it would benefit patients by creating ‘a safe, comfortable place for people to recuperate from hospital’, and the NHS by helping with bed shortages and delayed transfers of care.

But clinicians and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services have expressed alarm at the scheme over issues of safeguarding.

The Save Southend A&E campaign group, whose members include clinicians, says it ‘opens a huge can of worms’ for safeguarding, governance and financial and emotional abuse of people ‘at their most vulnerable time’.

Save Southend A&E said: “We are shocked that an NHS trust is endorsing such a company. 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.”

The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services has said it wants more details before making a full assessment, but that the ‘model of care raises questions about whether the safety and well-being of the individual have been fully considered’.

The medical director of CareRooms, which is part of NHS England’s clinical entrepreneur programme, said its governance and quality would be ‘better than standard practice’ to address such claims.

The pilot involves Southend University Hospital Foundation Trust, Southend and Castlepoint, Rayleigh and Rochford clinical commissioning groups; Essex County Council and Southend Borough Council.