Hospital Discharge Report

Looking into people's experiences of being discharged from a hospital in County Durham was selected by the public as one of their priorities when we asked them to help us decide our workplan for 2022/23. With support from the Patient Experience Team at County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust and Durham County Carers Support we wanted to find out:

• What discharge arrangements were discussed with the patient.

• Did the patient get discharged from the discharge lounge?

• Where were they going after being discharged from hospital?

• Did the patient feel that arrangements were in place following their discharge from 

hospital?

The report covers the responses of 66 people who took the time to complete the survey. During this time, we visited the discharge lounge at the University Hospital of North Durham and spoke to 11 patients who were waiting to be discharged from hospital. Another visit took us to Bishop Auckland Hospital rehabilitation ward where 5 patients shared their views.

• Patients have told us that their experience of the discharge lounge was mainly positive. The staff ensured that they were comfortable and warm.

• There seems to be a lack of communication between patients and family members/carers and people require someone to explain the medication that had been prescribed and when to take it.

• Patients told us that there was a lack of follow up calls from health professionals after discharge. Patients seemed to expect a call from a GP to ask how they were managing at home, especially following major surgery.

• 42% of patients told us that they did not feel that their discharge was well co-ordinated. Not all patients were aware if they had a care plan or not, if they had a care plan, they were unaware of what was included.

There are recommendations in this report.

• Communication would be improved by explaining to patients and their family members/carers what the process is of being discharged from hospital.

• Communication needs to improve between the hospital and other health professionals to ensure continuity of care.

• Timings of when patients are discharged should be appropriate to the patient’s circumstances.

• Staff should ensure that care is in place prior to discharge, and that the care is adequate to ensure patient safety and comfort.

• All patients should be involved in the formulation of their care plan, and staff should discuss with patients/family members what is included.

• Improvements are needed with the organsation of medication to avoid delays to patients being discharged. 

There are no follow up actions in this report. 

However the provider has responded to each of the recommendations.