HELP!! Hospital keeps discharging my FiL against GPs advice
Discussion
PALS were good for me in similar situation: https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/hospitals/what-is-...
How is he going home, who is at home, is he at risk, are the social services aware and involved.
I would ring emergency social work team at the local council and have it logged that you believe he's unsafe at home.
GP's and Hospitals never got it right or together with my mum. Even if you get a good GP, anything happen on an evening, emergency GP will send them in, hospital will send them out.
Care at home, someone receiving him or not, is the best way to ensure discharge only happens at the right time.
Take care
How is he going home, who is at home, is he at risk, are the social services aware and involved.
I would ring emergency social work team at the local council and have it logged that you believe he's unsafe at home.
GP's and Hospitals never got it right or together with my mum. Even if you get a good GP, anything happen on an evening, emergency GP will send them in, hospital will send them out.
Care at home, someone receiving him or not, is the best way to ensure discharge only happens at the right time.
Take care
anonymous said:
[redacted]
MIL will need to explain she cannot cope with him, which will be horrible. Social services will then look at his needs, HOWEVER be mindful of opening a can of worms I guess; will they be self funding any care?
How is he being discharged, are they simply ringing MIL and saying he's coming home later?
The hospital never discharged my mum to an empty house (she was bed bound) how able is FIL and what does he want?
I'm no expert, however I spent over 20 years with a very sick mother going around and around, if I can offer anything else let me know.
Social services were very helpful, however it's a process and once you've started, it'll rattle along!
If he's being admitted today, contact them now on the phone
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the urgent demands on our clinical and operational colleagues, which resulted in a national pause in the complaints service, you may experience delays in receiving a response to your complaint.
However, we will acknowledge, log and review your contact and we will act upon any concerns about patient safety or safeguarding.
Where we are able to resolve matters via telephone or email contact we will try to do so. If not, we will respond to your complaint as soon as we can.
If you need to make contact about an existing complaint please email the complaints mailbox.
Email: Complaints@uhb.nhs.uk
If you have an urgent issue which you need help with please contact the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS).
Tel: 0121 424 0808
Email: PALS@uhb.nhs.uk
We will resume our normal complaints service as soon as possible. In the meantime, thank you for your patience and understanding.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the urgent demands on our clinical and operational colleagues, which resulted in a national pause in the complaints service, you may experience delays in receiving a response to your complaint.
However, we will acknowledge, log and review your contact and we will act upon any concerns about patient safety or safeguarding.
Where we are able to resolve matters via telephone or email contact we will try to do so. If not, we will respond to your complaint as soon as we can.
If you need to make contact about an existing complaint please email the complaints mailbox.
Email: Complaints@uhb.nhs.uk
If you have an urgent issue which you need help with please contact the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS).
Tel: 0121 424 0808
Email: PALS@uhb.nhs.uk
We will resume our normal complaints service as soon as possible. In the meantime, thank you for your patience and understanding.
anonymous said:
[redacted]
Yep - been there.Very quickly I stopped collected mum and explained I was having nothing to do with getting her home or back in bed, that soon focused minds on her care package.
The minibus route will continue once you stop the collections and the trouble is, the minbus crew will hand over care to MIL, if she wasn't there they wouldn't leave him I suspect.
You'll have to play somewhat dirty which goes against your moral and loving nature towards them, however so long as someone else is accepting responsibiltiy for him you're buggered sadly.
Social services said to me "It will take a big incident before we can get involved".
Ultimately what do you want out of this, remember hospitals WILL discharge so you're looking at home care, or residential care.
Are they self funding, a financial assessment will be done if care is being discussed.
My experience of the hpostials is that, if he's not going to die they'll want rid and push it back on GP's
If MIL wasn't there, they might stick him in emergency restbite care which isn't great, but he'll not stop in the hospital.
anonymous said:
[redacted]
This is the problem then, hospital will keep discharging him as their professional opinion is that to get better he needs to be at home.If he is that ill, perhaps he should have care, then the whole care and financial stuff happens.
(if this is likely to be the next step, now is the time to check everything else is in place, talk it through with adult social care maybe, they were great with me over the years, but that's up in Yorkshire)
Best of luck!!
Edited to add, could MIL not bubble with you for a few weeks whilst he recovers in hospital, could you have a conversation with GP\Hospital\Social Services which states MIL is tired and not well herself and that FIL needs full time care for a month or so, be that hospital or restbite care somewhere....it might cost them a couple of grand, should they be required to self fund, however might this help???
Nurse here, been involved with discharging patients rather frequently, sometimes very complex discharges.
I'm happy for you to PM me if you wish.
Generally there will need to be some decision taken as to whether someone is medically fit for discharge - ie do they NEED hospital based care? If the care can be carried out away from the hospital then that is what will be aimed for - however that does not mean that a patient MUST be discharged. There are a whole raft of social and other aspects that need to be included in the whole discharge procedure.
With repeated re-admissions it is likely that at some stage it will be flagged as a "failed discharge" - these are monitored and data collected. Sadly the discharge threshold is much lower these days due to covid - there's a higher pressure on beds and also a higher risk of a health care acquired infection, so hospital is not ALWAYS the best place.
Speak with the ward staff and if possible the discharge coordinator. Enquire about the possibility of intermediate care or respite care (this may need to be funded).
One thought that did strike me - is your Father in Law asking to go home? If a patient has capacity then he cannot be held in hospital.
SD.
I'm happy for you to PM me if you wish.
Generally there will need to be some decision taken as to whether someone is medically fit for discharge - ie do they NEED hospital based care? If the care can be carried out away from the hospital then that is what will be aimed for - however that does not mean that a patient MUST be discharged. There are a whole raft of social and other aspects that need to be included in the whole discharge procedure.
With repeated re-admissions it is likely that at some stage it will be flagged as a "failed discharge" - these are monitored and data collected. Sadly the discharge threshold is much lower these days due to covid - there's a higher pressure on beds and also a higher risk of a health care acquired infection, so hospital is not ALWAYS the best place.
Speak with the ward staff and if possible the discharge coordinator. Enquire about the possibility of intermediate care or respite care (this may need to be funded).
One thought that did strike me - is your Father in Law asking to go home? If a patient has capacity then he cannot be held in hospital.
SD.
It sounds like he needs some nursing care, but isn't deemed to be sick enough to require treatment in an acute hospital.
The days of hospitals nursing patients back to fitness in hospital are long gone - if you're not on a specific treatment plan that requires hospital supervision then they will look to discharge.
As you've discovered with the infections your father has picked up, it's not always the best place to be in any event.
The best place for him is probably in a nursing home for respite/convalescent care. If he or the family can afford it, it's a worthwhile investment to get him back on his feet otherwise the unfortunate reality is he may well see the rest of his days out yo-yoing in and out of hospital until he picks up something which finishes him off.
We went through similar with my Grandmother a couple of years ago, although she ultimately had a terminal illness and eventually refused to go back in to hospital. It's grim.
The days of hospitals nursing patients back to fitness in hospital are long gone - if you're not on a specific treatment plan that requires hospital supervision then they will look to discharge.
As you've discovered with the infections your father has picked up, it's not always the best place to be in any event.
The best place for him is probably in a nursing home for respite/convalescent care. If he or the family can afford it, it's a worthwhile investment to get him back on his feet otherwise the unfortunate reality is he may well see the rest of his days out yo-yoing in and out of hospital until he picks up something which finishes him off.
We went through similar with my Grandmother a couple of years ago, although she ultimately had a terminal illness and eventually refused to go back in to hospital. It's grim.
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