You can use this page to find out more about going to a Community Hospital.
What Community Hospital is
A Community Hospital is a smaller hospital in the community which provides healthcare and rehabilitation in a ward. A multi-disciplinary team made up of nurses, doctors and therapists will help you to recover from your episode of ill health and assess your longer-term support needs in readiness to go home or to a care home.
Your stay at the Community Hospital is a for a short-term period and is usually treated as step down from a stay in the acute hospital, or as a step up from an episode of illness at home.
How your care at the Community Hospital is paid for
This is a service paid for by the NHS. This money comes from public funds and it is important we spend it wisely, to ensure we provide a fair and equal service to people when they really need it.
What happens during your stay
During your admission, the ward and discharge liaison team will come and speak with you to assess what support and help you already had before coming into hospital. They will ask you for information to understand if you can go straight home with either home care or need to move into a care home. They will need to ask you quite a few questions so you may want someone with you to help. With your consent, you may be referred to an Adult Social Care team who can help get in place the care and support you need to leave the Community Hospital.
Support that is available to you
During your stay at the Community Hospital, you need to start thinking about how your care and support needs will be met when you leave. Starting to think about this early helps you keep your independence and helps meet the outcomes that are important to you. Thinking about this early can also help you leave hospital sooner.
Depending on your care and support needs, there are many different services to ensure the outcomes that are important to you, are met when you leave hospital. Examples of support you might be able to access, subject to assessment, include:
- Information, advice and guidance: You might like to know more about benefits, accessing social support, or equipment to help you to return home.
- Ongoing rehabilitation
- Informal support: You may want to discuss whether your family, friends, or voluntary agencies can support you in any way
- Reablement: This is short term support to assist you in re-establishing your daily routine at home
- Period of assessment in a care home: This would be to help you recover more and assess what ongoing support you might need
- Long-term care in a care home
- Care at home: This is when a homecare agency visits you on an agreed schedule on a long-term basis
How much you will need to pay towards the cost of your care after leaving the Community Hospital
Our Care Finance team will work with you to understand your financial position and work out how much your assessed weekly care charge towards the cost of your care and support will be.
The Care Finance Officer will also be able to assist you and signpost you to support to find out if you are eligible for any benefits. We can give you written information about paying for care and support and how your assessed weekly care charge is calculated, and will be able to answer any queries you have. You may wish to seek independent financial advice to ensure you make the best decisions for you.
If you have over £23,250 in savings, you will need to pay the full cost of your care. This is the national threshold set by the UK Government and is reviewed each year.
If you have over this amount of money in savings and assets, you will need to find your own care and set this up directly with a care home or care agency. We can help you do this by giving you a list of care homes and agencies, who you can contact yourself.
Equipment that will be available to you
The appropriate therapy team will make an assessment prior to you going home or when you arrive at the community hospital. This will tell you what equipment might help you now or in the future.
More information
You can find out more about Care Act Assessments and Support Planning on our web page.
You can also find community services to help support your care needs on our LiveWell directory.
If you do not have access to the internet, please call our Community Wellbeing hub on 0300 247 00 50. They can provide you with the necessary information, advice and guidance.