Discharging yourself from hospital

Person_one

juliethemuse wrote: »

This is rubbish!!! there is nothing wrong with him he was waiting 3 days for a small wound to be sutured. is 'op' got cancelled 3 times.
even when they say you can go,No wonder beds get blocked! Half of them have patients waiting to be given their discharge letter & medications.

After 3 days there'd be absolutely no point suturing a small wound anyway.

What's the real story?

Person_one

suki1964 wrote: »

Sorry but that's not quite true

I've been discharged at early morning bed rounds, but haven't received discharge meds, dressings, follow up appt, doctors letter until 6pm

It's not uncommon to be sat all day waiting for these things

My mother too waited 5 hours between discharge and finally getting to leave

They told you you would be able to leave that day, you left that day once the necessary arrangements were made.

That's nothing like the OP's story that he's been waiting three days for something completely unnecessary!

rocketqueen

I discharged myself from hospital against medical advice a few years ago.

My case was that I had major surgery, and after a few days on the ward, I was convinced I'd be better off at home, as couldn't sleep etc on the ward and the care I received was quite frankly shocking.

I told them I was going, they brought the paperwork for me to sign, removed the needles from my arms and brought my medication.

I recovered well at home, but looking back now it was a fairly stupid thing to do, as hospitals don't try to keep you in unnecessarily.

Pop_Up_Pirate

Guest101 wrote: »

Im sorry but this is daily fail propaganda at it's best

Hardly.
I speak from personal experience as a health care professional. We keep patients in who have had ops cancelled all the time as that is what the consultant wants.
What you also have to realise what happens in one hospital or area doesn't happen in all hospitals or areas.

Patients are often kept in hospital when they don't really need to be for many reasons.

Another one is treatments. Some patients have been kept in hospital so they can 'jump the queue' for treatments. For example, if someone is admitted to hospital with back problems, he might be kept in to get access to MRI's, lumber punctures etc quicker rather than discharging him after finding out he is not an emergency.
Why?
Because the consultant wants to see the case through.

Bed Management can only work on what a consultant needs. And if a consultant is adamant that he wants a patient in for x amount of time, that's what happens.
Yes, a team might visit every day, but if the consultant wants to see the patient before he/she is discharged, in many many cases, that can be 2 or 3 days later.

I have seen countless situations where a patient is good to go home, but consultants want to keep them 'a couple more days'. Absolutely wanting to cover the NHS 'backs' as it were.

Some hospitals are torn between giving the best care they can with the facilities they have and freeing up bed space. Some hospitals err on the side of caution.

Person_one

Guest101 wrote: »

Im sorry but this is daily fail propaganda at it's best

Nobody gets a hospital bed because a routine, elective op got cancelled, but it does happen that if somebody was on the emergency list but didn't get into theatre that they will just go on the list for the next day and keep their bed overnight.

Person_one

Pop_Up_Pirate wrote: »

Hardly.
I speak from personal experience as a health care professional. We keep patients in who have had ops cancelled all the time as that is what the consultant wants.
What you also have to realise what happens in one hospital or area doesn't happen in all hospitals or areas.

Patients are often kept in hospital when they don't really need to be for many reasons.

Another one is treatments. Some patients have been kept in hospital so they can 'jump the queue' for treatments. For example, if someone is admitted to hospital with back problems, he might be kept in to get access to MRI's, lumber punctures etc quicker rather than discharging him after finding out he is not an emergency.
Why?
Because the consultant wants to see the case through.

Bed Management can only work on what a consultant needs. And if a consultant is adamant that he wants a patient in for x amount of time, that's what happens.
Yes, a team might visit every day, but if the consultant wants to see the patient before he/she is discharged, in many many cases, that can be 2 or 3 days later.

I have seen countless situations where a patient is good to go home, but consultants want to keep them 'a couple more days'. Absolutely wanting to cover the NHS 'backs' as it were.

Some hospitals are torn between giving the best care they can with the facilities they have and freeing up bed space. Some hospitals err on the side of caution.

I think you need better bed managers at your trust!

Guest101

Pop_Up_Pirate wrote: »

Hardly.
I speak from personal experience as a health care professional. - Whilst I have no reason to doubt you, I wonder what is your role? We keep patients in who have had ops cancelled all the time as that is what the consultant wants. - yes inpatients?
What you also have to realise what happens in one hospital or area doesn't happen in all hospitals or areas. - I agree totally. but this just seems bad management.

Patients are often kept in hospital when they don't really need to be for many reasons. - absolutely, but hospitals don't choose to keep people in.

Another one is treatments. Some patients have been kept in hospital so they can 'jump the queue' for treatments. For example, if someone is admitted to hospital with back problems, he might be kept in to get access to MRI's, lumber punctures etc quicker rather than discharging him after finding out he is not an emergency. - Yes but that is again just bad management.
Why?
Because the consultant wants to see the case through. - need to hire better consultants.

Bed Management can only work on what a consultant needs. - rubbish, bed management is nothing to do with consultants. And if a consultant is adamant that he wants a patient in for x amount of time, that's what happens. - that's not quite true, because that consultant wont be employed for long....
Yes, a team might visit every day, but if the consultant wants to see the patient before he/she is discharged, in many many cases, that can be 2 or 3 days later. - Again that's just bad management

I have seen countless situations where a patient is good to go home, but consultants want to keep them 'a couple more days'. Absolutely wanting to cover the NHS 'backs' as it were. - This is not good working practice and totally outside discharge pathways.

Some hospitals are torn between giving the best care they can with the facilities they have and freeing up bed space. Some hospitals err on the side of caution.

What you describe is absolutely awful practices by consultants.

Guest101

Person_one wrote: »

Nobody gets a hospital bed because a routine, elective op got cancelled, but it does happen that if somebody was on the emergency list but didn't get into theatre that they will just go on the list for the next day and keep their bed overnight.

Yes ofcourse, but someone on an emergency list in many cases is already in hospital, prepped and ready to go.

nearlyrich

Person_one wrote: »

These days there are no spare social workers waiting around to check on people, the police are the first call if there is a safety concern.

There aren't too many spare police officers waiting around to check on people either. If someone wants to leave they should be considerate and make sure they tell the staff they are going so they don't have anyone out looking for them when they could be needed for a real emergency.

Pop_Up_Pirate

Guest101 wrote: »

What you describe is absolutely awful practices by consultants.

Yes, it is. And it happens countless times over and over again.