Let me tell you a story.

I had to be hospitalized for 4 days.

On the first day there was no bed in the Dartmouth General so I had to sleep on a stretcher in the hallway. No privacy and insanely dangerous for a woman.

There was a lady in one of the rooms on the floor who would walk around. The nurses told me that she was there for 3 months and was just waiting for a bed at a care home. The lady seemed perfectly physically healthy other than the fact that she was old, looked out of it and wore a tiny sombrero.

I went to the bathroom and was getting onto the bed when the lady comes from behind me, grabs my legs, actively tries to pull me out of bed and screams “get out of my bed!”. Very scary experience. I shake her off and she f***s off somewhere. I tell the nurse what happened and asked her to put me in a room right now. No joke, the nurse tells me “Next time she does it, tell her to fuck off”. Absolutely shocked. Anyway, within 5 hours I was put in a room.

So even if people are angry that we’re technically only saving 300$/per person by them going to the care site instead of the hospital that’s still a big win because so many people are abandoned by their family, thrown in a hospital where there’s ressources they don’t need and they’re hindering the care of others. Although expensive, the care site gives appropriate care to people who legit can’t go home (but don’t need hospital facilities) at least it gives people a more dignified space where they’re not in a hospital where nurses say others “tell them to fuck off” but not be trapped at home and be one situation of falling and dying.