Hotel partners with hospital to give respite to emergency patient carers
Now families or carers of Canberra Hospital emergency patients can access free emergency accommodation at the hotel, thanks to a partnership between its owners and the Canberra Hospital Foundation.
Health Minister Simon Corbell said the deal would especially benefit families from interstate who unexpectedly need to stay overnight.
"They could be coming from hundreds of kilometres away and often they don't anticipate the need to stay overnight but due to circumstances they need to and they're suddenly stuck for accommodation," Mr Corbell said.
"This new partnership gives people a very welcoming environment at the time it's needed the most."
Canberra Hospital Foundation chair Deb Rolfe said: "When you're so worried about the person who's ill, it's nice not to have to worry about the basics of life."
She said the hospital does provide a level of accommodation but around 10 per cent of presentations at emergency are from interstate.
"Obviously resources can be a bit tight at times. This sort of partnership means they won't have to worry about accommodation, breakfast, anything like that," Ms Rolfe said.
"They've got a beautiful, comfortable room, welcoming people and everyone is there ready to help them which is lovely," she said.
East Hotel's owner Dan Bisa said the hotel was rarely 100 per cent occupied and the need was always there.
"We'll always have rooms that are underutilised at some point in time and if they can be utilised by the hospital it's a great outcome," he said.
"One of the rooms we have is specifically designed for children with as much sugar as they can possibly eat and X-Boxes so the mum and dad can have a great time just hanging out and relax while the children are having a great time next door."
Associate general manager Dion Bisa said they wanted to make it as simple as possible for patients in crisis to access accommodation.
She said guests are usually "blown away" by the care they receive.
"We try and send up nice things, like special tea and chocolates," she said.
"We've even had some instances where guests have come in for emergency accommodation and checked in later with their families because they've loved it so much."
Source: The Canberra Times, Katie Burgess, 24th August 2015
Originally published as: Hotel partners with hospital to give respite to emergency patient carers
