"Safety concerns surrounding discharge process"

The opinions expressed in the following is not a reflection on nursing staff in ward 13, who try every day to do their best for patients.

However, my real concern is for patients being discharged into the community without due concern for their safety. My mother-in-law is in her 90s and was discharged from ward 13. She had been admitted with a UTI which was successful treated. However, some days prior to her being admitted to hospital her GP informed my wife that her mother now requires a package of care. She has carers showering her twice a week but the GP recognised, in her deteriorating health and increasing frailty, the need for a much more comprehensive package of care.

At this point my wife and I were providing 24/7 care for my mother-in-law. Her GP probably recognised that my wife and I could no longer cope with the burden of care and were staying with her 24 hours a day. An assessor from the social work department arrived and was very thorough in their assessment and also interviewed my wife and I concerning my mother-in-law’s capabilities. They then assured us her case would be heard at the next RAG meeting.

However, much to our alarm she was discharged from Hairmyres Hospital without a package of care. The staff on duty, including an OT, Senior Nurse and a Junior Doctor, assured me that the MDT consider her capable of independent living. We expressed our surprise that their assessment is so contrary to that of a GP who knows their patient well and an experienced assessor who visited her in her own home. The assessment by the ward 13 MDT was based on observations made by an OT. A one-off observation restricted to a singly patient hospital bedroom and a series of questions posed to a woman in her 90s with no one else, particularly a family member, in attendance.

I registered my deep concern that we believe this to be an unsafe discharge. I suspect, although clearly I have no direct proof, the conclusion reached by the MDT was influenced by their belief the patient’s daughter will continue to provide the package of care they were unwilling to request. We have concluded that submitting a request for an appropriate package of care would have blocked a much needed bed.

We were also confidently assured that arrangements for an IHTS (I may have the acronym wrong) assessment would be taking place. We asked each HCP what the acronym meant but none were able to explain it nor the process or timeline for its completion. This seems to sum up the current situation in Hairmyres Hospital and the apparent pressure to release beds in haste without due consideration for patient safety.