Enter and view report: Safely Home after Discharge

In 2014 Healthwatch England began a Special Inquiry into the issues surrounding discharge from health and social care settings. Healthwatch Stockport re-established its Discharge Subgroup to collect and evaluate information around local discharge procedures.

Healthwatch Stockport carried out a number of Enter and View visits throughout the area. The purpose of the visits was to understand the views of patients about their discharge and also gather information about how health and social care professionals work together to enable a safe and timely discharge for patients.

The following individuals and organisations were interviewed by Healthwatch Stockport members and staff between October 2015 and May 2016:

 Stockport NHS Foundation Trust Wards at Stepping Hill Hospital

 Discharge Co-ordinators – Stockport NHS Foundation Trust

 District Nurses – Stockport NHS Foundation Trust

 Chief Pharmacist at Stockport NHS Foundation Trust

 Social Workers, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, based at Stepping Hill Hospital

 Marbury House – an Intermediate Care Home in Stockport

 Stockport GPs – Members of the Local Medical Council

This report attempts to bring together the findings of those interviews and visits and sets out recommendations to improve the process and the experience for patients.

13 overall recommendations were made, but many were made for individual or specific services.