Bed-blockers are being shunted into a 'stylish' £85-a-night hotel trends now
Desperate health bosses have taken to checking patients into a hotel to ease pressure on overwhelmed hospital wards.
Two floors of the Leonardo Hotel in Plymouth are being used to house up to 40 patients from the city's huge Derriford Hospital and others nearby.
The hotel, which describes itself as 'stylish' and 'the perfect home away from home', charges around £85 per room for a room with bed and breakfast included.
It means the cash-strapped NHS trust would be spending up to £100,000 per month on rooms, if charged at the same rate.
NHS Devon says it is spending £9.85million this winter on enhancing discharge capacity including 'care hotels' and community-based rehabilitation.
Two floors of the Leonardo Hotel in Plymouth (pictured) are being used to house up to 40 patients from the city's huge Derriford Hospital and others nearby
Today, medical staff in hospital scrubs bearing the logo of a private care company were seen milling around the public areas of the hotel alongside tourists and others visiting the city.
One relative whose 93-year-old grandmother was housed at the hotel for more than a month said: 'She has pancreatic cancer and kidney problems.
'She got very ill before Christmas and was taken to Derriford but spent a whole day in an ambulance and another day on a trolley in a corridor before they moved her to the hotel.
The NHS's bed-blocking crisis has exploded since the pandemic, with the levels of delayed discharges around triple comparable figures before Covid
'She wasn't treated badly but was left for long periods of time on her own and she isn't able to get out of bed without help.
'We got the sense the staff were desperate to move her out — every day she was asked whether she had somebody living with her who can take care of her but she just doesn't.
'She was discharged around two weeks ago and within one day of getting out she had a fall and is now back in Derriford.
'I understand the pressures they are under and the rooms must be costing a fortune but I don't doubt for a second she was released too early.'
Today, medical staff in hospital scrubs were seen milling around the public areas of the hotel alongside tourists and others visiting the city.
Shop staff nearby reported seeing ambulances arrive to drop off new patients every day since October.
One TripAdvisor review of the hotel from
