CARE homes are to take hospital patients to ease the squeeze on the county’s strained NHS services.

Herefordshire Council signed off on the initiative this week backed by Herefordshire Clinical Commissioning Group.

Five homes have been chosen as “appropriate environments”

for patients fit for discharge from Hereford County Hospital or the community hospitals to free up bed space.

Hereford County Hospital alone has to discharge between 40 and 50 patients staying overnight or longer to cope with current daily admissions. Wye Valley NHS Trust (WVT) has been told by the NHS to find alternatives to extra beds through measures to manage patient flow.

Herefordshire Council has been warned that the squeeze on bed space presents an “unacceptable risk” to its duty of care for vulnerable adults.

Cllr Graham Powell, cabinet member for health & well-being, approved the care home plan, but it could still be called in by the council’s health and social care scrutiny committee, ahead of an intended launch within weeks.

A £494,280 budget for the scheme will be covered by what the council receives through the Better Care Fund, the national initiative incentivising the NHS and councils to work more closely together.

The sum buys nine beds in the five homes chosen after tendering that are Highwells (Bromyard), Hampton Grange (Hereford), Coldwells (Hereford), Whitegates (Bromyard) and Hazelhurst (Bishopswood, Ross-on-Wye). Stays would be limited to a maximum of two weeks.

Wye Valley NHS trust will provide occupational therapists and physiotherapists to work alongside care home staff.

A model for the scheme’s £494,280 budget has a maximum £394,000 allocated for the provision of beds.

This model was originally based on a maximum weekly cost of £750 for beds in a nursing home and £700 for beds in a residential home and the tendered prices received were consistent with this.