Experience of hospital discharge at Whittington Hospital

This 2017 report and the research which informed its findings was carried out as part of a programme of engagement on the North London Partners Urgent and Emergency Care programme. North London Partners is the sustainability and transformation partnership for North London, formed of health and care organisations from the five London boroughs of Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey and Islington.

The five local Healthwatch in the North London area are collaborating to promote citizen engagement in the work of the partnership. This includes an extensive programme of engagement on Urgent and Emergency Care, led by Healthwatch Camden.

Healthwatch Barnet conducted the interviews for this piece of work which aimed to explore the experience of patients discharged from the Whittington Hospital in the last six months of 2017. Patients were asked about the information they were given before discharge; if they had a care plan; whether they felt sufficiently involved in the care planning; whether they felt supported at home; and, if anything could have been done better.

Responses varied between patients as to how they felt about their experience although, where people had care packages in place, the report notes that over half of them described issues with this. The themes of these issues were: no continuity of carer (with some not arriving), no control over the tasks performed by the carer; and the competencies and attitudes of the carers showed large variations.