Hospital discharge during Covid-19
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Healthwatch Swindon analyse and report on responses from Swindon residents to the Healthwatch England hospital discharge survey. They heard from 46 people in Swindon, 10 of which were carers.
There were lots of examples of exemplary care delivered by staff at the local hospital, but in a small number of cases, people felt that staff attitudes were poor. Some people found that after care from services after they had been discharged could have been better.
All hospitals were issued with leaflets to give to patients when they were ready to leave, explaining why there were being discharged and what to expect. Half of the respondents told us that they did not receive this information.
The requirements during the pandemic set out that the transfer to the discharge area should be within one hour of the decision being made that a patient was fit for discharge and that they should be discharged as soon as possible after that, but usually within two hours
A third of respondents told us that they did not require additional support prior to leaving and all of these individuals were discharged in under two hours, irrespective of which day of the week this fell on. A small proportion of respondents did not feel ready to leave hospital. Just over 40% of respondents said that they were told they would receive support from health or social care services when they left and just over 60% said that they were told who to contact if they needed additional support once they left hospital.
The majority of people – 85% - were discharged back to their own homes again, which is always the preferred choice. Most people told us that they were not visited by a health care professional to assess their care needs.
At the time of responding to the survey a small proportion of people – 11% - had some support needs that they were not getting any help with.
Not all respondents were tested for COVID – nearly a quarter said that they were not. Of those that were, nearly three quarters of respondents, nine people did not receive their results.
The report includes lessons learnt and a response from the provider.