Discharge Factsheet

Planning your discharge from hospital

We know most people don’t like being in hospital, and once they are over their initial episode of acute illness, staying in hospital isn’t the safest or best place for them to be.  People recover better, are less likely to catch infections and are more likely to regain their best level of independence when they go home or into community-based care.

Our job is to help you through this period when you are acutely unwell, so you can then continue your recovery at home, or in another community setting, like a care home, as soon as possible.

So, even as you join us, we will be planning to discharge you as soon as the clinical team looking after you agree you are medically well enough to leave our care. This is because evidence tells us that going home, or into a temporary care home place, is much better for patients’ wellbeing than a prolonged stay in a hospital bed.

Leaving hospital when you are medically well enough has a number of important benefits for your wellbeing: 

• You are more likely to have opportunities to move around in your own home, or in a care home, strengthening your muscles and regaining your confidence
• You are less likely to pick up an infection as you won’t be around sick patients
• Being in a less busy environment than an acute hospital ward gives you the best chance to rest, sleep well and recover 

If necessary, health and social care staff will provide information, advice and assistance to enable you to leave. Some people may require short term assistance from family and friends when they leave hospital, and some may need a package of care and support to help them live at home.

However, there can sometimes be a delay in getting these support packages arranged, and the present intense pressures on the NHS and the social care system are adding to these delays.

If this happens in your case, it would not be appropriate to keep you in hospital when you no longer need our urgent care.  Not only could it affect your own recovery, but another acutely unwell patient who really needs to come into hospital may have their own treatment delayed.

If possible, please ask your family or friends to help you leave hospital on time or make your own arrangements for additional support so you can go home while you wait for your longer term care packages to be arranged.

If this option is not available to you, we will make all the necessary arrangements to temporarily transfer you to a care home or another appropriate community setting, as soon as possible after your clinical team have agreed you are medically well enough to leave.

As your temporary stay will be a social care provision, your local authority will undertake a financial assessment to work out the amount you will need to contribute. The amount you will pay will be the same as you would need to pay for the service you are waiting for, such as domiciliary care or placement in a care home.

The staff in the hospital will discuss this with you in more detail as necessary.

The Welsh Government patient discharge policy is clear that patients cannot remain in an acute hospital bed while their ongoing care and support is arranged.

If you have any questions, please speak to the nurse in charge of your ward.                       

Medication

The medication that you brought into hospital will be returned to you, unless it has been discontinued.

If you have started new medication, you will be given a supply to take home. Your GP will then prescribe more as required. Your medication will be explained to you. There are also written instructions on the packaging, and any additional information will be provided as required.