What is a community hospital?
What is a community hospital?
Community hospitals provide 24-hour care and support for people who no longer need to be cared for in an acute (general) hospital environment.
People come for a stay in a community hospital stay after being referred by a team of healthcare professionals who have carefully assessed their needs. Usually this is because they feel you are ready to leave the main hospital but need some more time to recover before you are ready to return home.
Most patients will come into our community hospitals for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation helps a person achieve the best level of independence and quality of life after their injury or illness.
Our patients may be allocated to any one of our six community hospital sites. These are:
- Brackley Community Hospital
- Corby Community Hospital
- Danetre Community Hospital, Daventry
- Hazelwood ward, Isebrook Hospital, Wellingborough
- Beechwood ward, Spinneyfields Care Centre, Rushden
- Turn Furlong, Kingsthorpe, Northampton
Each of our sites offers a range of therapeutic treatments.
Find out more about our community hospital sites.
What can I expect from a community hospital stay?
What can I expect from a community hospital stay?
All of our community hospital wards are managed by doctors and led by nurses.
The support we offer will depend on your individual needs, but it will include:
- A personal care programme tailored to your needs
- Support to help you reach an established goal
- Short-term rehabilitation
- Inclusion of family, friends and carers in your care
- Support from all staff
Returning home
We will work with you to establish how long we expect you to stay with us, and help you look forward to returning home. We will give you advice and support to help you return home safely, and our planning for your safe discharge will begin after your first meeting with the community hospital team.
Your daily routine
Your daily routine
Your daily routine will be planned with you and your family and / or carers around your personal needs and your normal routine. This may include:
- Tailored therapy sessions
- Rehabilitation provided by all staff
- 24-hour care with alternating staff
- Medication provided by nurses, who will also assess your ability to take medicines by yourself
- Exercise
- Meal times (these differ across our hospital sites and information will be shared with you on admission)
To ensure your stay with us is successful it is really important that you participate in any therapy and self-led exercises recommended for you. We also strongly encourage you to sit out at meal times.
What should I bring with me
What should I bring with me?
When deciding what to bring with you, please be as selective as you can and only bring items that you really need.
Things that can be packed and carried around easily are best, and we suggest a focus on day and night clothes, sensible shoes, toiletries and medications.
All of your property should be clearly labelled. If you must bring in valuables, please tell the nurse so that they can be properly stored.
Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust cannot accept responsibility for loss or damage to your personal property.
About our facilities
About our facilities
Accommodation across our community hospital sites includes a mixture of bay beds, single room beds and apartment rooms.
Bay beds are for patients needing increased supervision.
Other facilities include:
- Therapy gym with specialist equipment
- Accessible outside space
- Options for shared communal space
- Daily living assessment area
- Free Wifi
Find out more about our community hospital sites.
Policies and guidelines
Policies and guidelines
Visiting times
Visiting times are shared with patients and families when they arrive with us, as they are different for each of our sites.
We ask that visitors avoid meal times unless they are helping patients to eat.
More information about visiting times at our community hospital sites is available in the Available Locations tab.
Infection control
In order to keep you safe we adhere to Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust's Infection Control Policy. Staff will provide you with more detail about this.
Smoking
Please note that smoking or vaping is not allowed anywhere on any NHFT sites for outpatients, visitors or staff.
Abusive behaviour
NHFT has a strict zero tolerance policy towards abuse and also a policy to explain unacceptable behaviour.
Drugs and alcohol
Alcohol and / or illicit substances are not allowed on any NHFT property. All efforts will be made to provide appropriate reasonable adjustments that cannot be used to harm others.
Visitor parking
All visitors can park on site, free of charge, with disabled parking available at all our community hospital sites.