Hospital discharge patient engagement

Between August 2022 and March 2023 Healthwatch Wakefield carried out engagement work with people who had recently been discharged from  local hospitals. The aim was to gather the views and experiences of adults, and their families, who had recently been discharged from Pinderfields, Pontefract or Dewsbury hospital. Each month, these experiences would be fed into the System Discharge Group to ensure that the patient voice was heard and to enable appropriate

 All respondents had been discharged from Pinderfields or Dewsbury, most within the last two months. There were issues around people being transferred from Pinderfields to Dewsbury Hospital and family not being informed.

Three in ten people who had been in hospital for more than four weeks felt that they had been in too long.

All but 14 people, out of 111, were discharged back home or to the place they had been living before going into hospital, for example with relatives.

Three in ten people didn‘t feel that they had everything they needed in place when they were discharged from hospital, and 36% didn‘t feel emotionally prepared. Similar reasons were given for both, with people feeling that they would have liked discharge information to have been communicated better, more support or follow up, or that they felt they needed more time in hospital.

There was a clear split in feelings of satisfaction with regards to communication and information about discharge. 45% of respondents felt satisfied whilst 45% felt dissatisfied. Those who had been in hospital for less than a week were happiest with communication.

Positive things about communication and information were staff, being kept up to date with questions being answered, and generally everything working well. Things that could have been improved about communication and information were: Generally more and better communication, more information about length of stay and discharge date, attitude of staff, amount of time waiting around and waiting for medication, more information about transfer between wards or hospitals, better written information and discharge notes and wanting a further referral.

Only 38% of respondents remembered being given written details of who to contact if they needed further advice or support after leaving hospital, this was similar when filtered for length of stay and also for age. This was despite the interviewer explaining what the leaflet looked like and when they should have received it.

Three quarters had received further care and support since being discharged and 75% of them felt that they were receiving the right amount, 9% said it wasn‘t enough and 16% were unsure.

Overall, 48% of people were satisfied with their discharge from hospital, however 34% were dissatisfied. Overall, 68% were satisfied with their care and support after discharge with only 13% being dissatisfied.

 Five themes emerged when people were asked to think of one thing that could be improved about the discharge process:

• Better communication and information
• Issues with staff and care
• Everything was positive
• Reduce time spent waiting around including waiting for medication
• Not enough follow up

The themes emerging from the six case studies were similarly focused largely on lack of clear communication, written information and follow up not being in place or clear, attitude of staff, discharge feeling rushed and stressful.