We know that you’ll be keen to get home following your hospital stay and we’ll do all we can to make the next stage of your care or recovery seamless.
Planning your discharge
From when you arrive on the ward we’ll discuss your planned date to go home, called your discharge. This may change but it will give us a date to work towards together and make arrangements.
Like many of our patients, you’ll be much more comfortable at home if that’s where you’re able to go, and to safely continue your recovery or care there. Once you are medically ready to leave we’ll make arrangements for your discharge and discuss these with you, and your loved ones if you’d like us to include them.
If any support is needed at home, or a different place for care is needed then your medical team will make those arrangements for you. We’ll make sure you are discharged to the best place for your care.
Discharged to home
If you are going home your medical team may ask you questions about your home such as if there are any stairs, any care support you already have in place, and friends and family you have who can help you.
If you need any at home care or support from the community healthcare team then we’ll make the referral for you.
Your medical team will talk to you about any medicine you need to take at home and make sure you have enough medicine to take with you. They’ll also make sure you have arrangements for travelling home safely.
Discharged to another place of care
Once you no longer need hospital care but still require further support that can’t be given at home then you’ll likely be going to another place of care such as a community setting.
We’ll make the arrangements for your transport and discharge to the setting and keep you and your loved ones informed. You can read more about why you are being transferred to another setting on the government website.
More information on discharge
Read more about discharging you to your next place of care and how we’ll work together to make sure you get the right ongoing support.
Planning together: leaving hospital when the time is rightOn the day of your discharge
Patient discharge lounge
Once you are ready to leave the ward you may be asked to go to the hospital discharge lounge. The discharge lounge is a comfortable place to wait for any medication you need or whilst you wait for relatives or friends for your transport home.
Your nurse or the ward team will help you get to the discharge lounge. Once you’re in the lounge staff are on hand if you have any questions at all. They can also help arrange any transport and administer any medication. Food is available too.
Using the discharge lounge usually means you’ll get home sooner as you can be discharged earlier in the day.
An added bonus is that every patient using the discharge lounge is helping another patient who can be admitted to the ward.
Medication
If you are taking any medication home with you then this will be given to you before you leave hospital. Medication is an important part of your discharge and your nurse will make sure that you know what medication you have, why you have been prescribed it and how to take it.
If you have brought any medication to hospital with you then this will be given to you too to take with you.
Transport
As we’ll have been discussing your discharge with you from early on this usually allows time to make arrangements with relatives, friends or carers to collect you on the day you’ll be going home.
We don’t normally arrange patient transport but if you do need help with this then talk to the ward staff or take a look at our patient transport page.
Contacting us after your stay
If you have any questions after you’ve left hospital then you can call the discharge team. To do this call the hospital switchboard and ask for the discharge team.
If you have any concerns about your care or feedback on your stay then you can speak to our PALS team.
Don’t forget to complete the Friends and Family test which will be a quick survey sent to you following your care asking you how likely you are to recommend us to somebody else based on the care you received. Your feedback is important to helping us achieve our Trust vision of excellent care, every time.
