Also in Community Hospitals:
Community hospitals are hospitals where most patients are admitted, and cared for, by their own GPs. Their functions are usually considered to be:
- Acute medical care where patients cannot be cared for at home, but where the expertise and/or the specialist diagnostic facilities of a major specialist hospital are not required
- Post acute care including rehabilitation
- Casualty services
- Palliative Care
In addition they may host a variety of functions for the locality including:
- Diagnostic facilities (e.g. x-ray, ultrasound, sigmoidoscopy, cardiac assessment, telemedicine)
- Therapeutic facilities (e.g. Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Minor Surgery, Day Hospital)
- Facilities for joint teams (community nursing teams and social work/care management teams)
- Specialist outpatient clinics
- Intermediate Care Clinics
Hospitals have often shared expertise and equipment, and offered cross border services to patients not nominally in their areas.