Letter: Use cottage hospitals to beat bed blocking
Recent reports of problems at local and other accident and emergency departments suggest one of the causes is the so-called "bed blocking" where people cannot be discharged as there is nowhere suitable for them to go or no suitable care package in place.
A hospital on the Isle of Wight recently hired part of a care home for such patients to free up beds.
This caused me to remember that when I was young and lived down south there used to be convalescent hospitals to which some people went when full nursing care was not needed but they could not yet be fully discharged.
There were also "local" hospitals (called "cottage" hospitals in Shropshire) which did not have full nursing but could take local patients.
Perhaps the Princess Royal and Royal Shrewsbury Hospital should look at some similar options for patients not needing full nursing and not fit enough for discharge or cannot be discharged for some other reason.
There are still local hospitals in Shropshire and cottage hospitals run under charitable trusts. Surely some could be used for this purpose more cheaply then beds in main hospitals – even if night staff had to be used?
Richard Camp, Wellington
