How can healthcare hotels help the NHS?

The concept of healthcare hotels originated long before the advent of modern medicine. Back then, travellers seeking medical treatment would receive basic nursing care and accommodation at temples, monasteries, and other healing centres. In the nineteenth century, sanatoriums and health resorts, such as spa towns, became popular destinations for health and healing. These resorts combined medical supervision with nutritious food, fresh air, and a variety of leisure activities to promote general wellbeing. As modern medicine advanced, hospitals became more specialised, technical, and scientific. Staff were under increasing pressure to treat and discharge patients as quickly as possible to free up bed spaces. While medical outcomes improved immeasurably, concepts such as nutrition, fresh air, and patient wellbeing — which were once considered key to the recovery process — were forgotten.

In my experience, hospital design seems to be returning to these early ideas of healing. While patients still expect sterile environments, clinically trained teams, and evidence-based medicine (well, most do), they also expect hospitals to go above and beyond their basic model of care by incorporating some of these early healing concepts, many of which have since transferred across to the hospitality sector.

As the name suggests, healthcare hotels combine the medical support, staff, and clinical services of a hospital with the comfort and convenience of a hotel. They are intended to accommodate patients who require minimal medical supervision, thereby freeing up bed spaces in the main hospital for those who are more critically ill. They are not intended as an alternative to hospitals, but rather to complement them. Patients requiring intensive care, major surgery, emergency treatment, or highly specialised care must remain in fully equipped hospitals. Similarly, guests wanting to stay in a traditional hotel should use Booking.com!