Plymouth short-term care centre

A new short-term care centre to help people recover from illness and ensure they don't spend longer than necessary in hospital, is now open.

The newly refurbished short term care centre, which is being run by Livewell Southwest and Age UK Plymouth, has 24 en-suite bedrooms to provide a safe place for patients to stay after they have been in hospital.

This could be for up to six weeks, with support from therapists and assistive technology and opportunities to engage in social activities in the rest of the building. The aim is that when people leave the centre, they are feeling much better and ready to go home and live as independently as possible.

The care centre will also offer support to older people who would otherwise be at risk of being admitted to hospital, which will continue to reduce pressures on Derriford Hospital.

The short term care centre is the latest initiative to be introduced in Plymouth health and social care system to help speed up the flow of patients from the acute hospital back into the community. Some of the other schemes in place include:

• The opening of care hotels to provide temporary extra care facility for people who are ready to leave hospital but need extra care support before they can get home.
• Working in partnership with City College to create workplace opportunities for students within the Care Home sector to support providers across the city where vacancy levels are high.
• The commissioning of a Live In Care offer, with care workers coming from outside of Plymouth, to be deployed in to our most challenging situations to avoid admissions to hospital and to enable providers to remain open.
• Releasing funding to support overtime payments for all care staff to ensure sufficient staffing is available to respond to system pressures.
• Launching of a high profile city wide recruitment campaign in partnership with DWP and Skills Launchpad Plymouth to ensure whole city focus on addressing the significant workforce shortages.