BRISTOL Children’s Hospital wants to build a “patient hotel” for children receiving long-term medical care and their parents.
The four-storey building behind the Cots for Tots House on Southwell Street, next to St Michael’s Hospital on St Michael’s Hill, is planned as a halfway house between acute hospital care and home.
The new facility will include 12 ensuite bedrooms, with a communal kitchen, laundry and lounge areas, as well as a therapy and gym space.
It will be used by families from Wiltshire, Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, South Wales whose children require lengthy treatment. They will stay in the patient hotel while the children receive outpatient treatment, thus freeing up beds in the hospital.
The project is being funded via the hospital charity, the Grand Appeal, which says the scheme has been made possible thanks to the support of the Bristol-based Yogscast and the Jingle Jam foundation.
Planning documents submitted to Bristol City Council say: “This development will be the first in the UK in a new generation of health facilities for children which is funded through private charity investment. With NHS waiting lists topping 7 million people nationally, the patient hotel will help by providing additional rooms for non-acute patients who are able to be treated close to the hospital as outpatients.
“The emphasis will be on keeping the patients out of the hospital environment by being able to stay close to the hospital with their parents, encouraging their independence and often adapting to a new way of life before returning home. Throughout England approximately 10 per cent of hospital beds are taken up by patients who are well enough to go home after treatment.
“In Scandinavian countries, that figure is less than three per cent as they provide patient hotel-type facilities as part of their whole health ecosystem. Since embarking on a major reform of its inpatient facilities in 2007, Denmark has reduced inpatient bed days by one fifth whilst increasing outpatient services by 50 per cent.”
The Bristol Children’s Hospital provides treatment and care to over 100,000 children from across the South West and South Wales each year. The hospital is a centre for excellence for treating conditions such as cancer, burns, neurosurgery and epilepsy.