IT is so good even the staff would like to book a room.

It's a real home from home - and that is the reason it is there.

The Hillside Centre, set up at a cost of £1.8 million, has been designed to help people struck down by illness to rehabilitate so they can return home, and stay there.

The centre opened last week and both patients and their families are mightily impressed.

There are 22 en-suite bedrooms, assisted bathrooms and a domestic style kitchen with equipment similar to home.

The service includes three meals a day with comfortable eating and sitting areas for patients to mix with others, and entertain visitors.

Patients can even make their own drinks and snacks.

While there, they get 24-hour nursing care, occupational therapy and physiotherapy seven days a week, speech and language therapy, stoma care, incontinence advice, six medical sessions a week, a GP on call and visiting regularly, plus social care.

And there is no charge.

But there is a catch, patients will have to have been quite poorly before being referred by their GP, or hospital.

The Hillside Centre is no rest home. Stays will rarely last more than six weeks and patients will work hard with therapists for their own good.

Many professionals will be involved as well as families and carers.

For some patients it will be a time to learn to walk, or even talk again, for others to regain their strength and carry out their personal tasks again.

Staff at the Hillside Centre are dedicated to helping people regain their independence to the best of their potential.

The specialised facilities mean people can leave a hospital ward sooner to get on with their rehabilitation while others, who have been ill at home can be admitted, take advantage of the same facilities and return home again.

Hillside Centre is all about giving people the best chance to regain their independence, and hopefully allowing them to return home to their own surroundings.

It is a joint venture between Herefordshire Primary Care Trust and Herefordshire Council and is in Pentwyn Avenue, Redhill, in Hereford.