howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#1
a report in the times informs us that last year 239,000 patients were discharged between 2300 and 0600 hours to free up beds.
those figures are from 100 out of 170 trusts that the paper contacted with freedom of information requests.
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
#2
fr-Heavens sake!
I wonder how the figure of, 239,000 stacks-up against the number seriously injured, through accident and violence, overnight?
"...and the little one said, roll over..."
It might well be a great inconvenience to bring home or have brought home a recovering loved-one, but worse things were happening also.
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
#3
Yes I heard this story this morning on the radio and they were referring to the Times article. Its very odd isnt it to get turfed out of your bed at 2am or 3am in the morning when you have been ill...nor does it appear to be anything to do with the accident and emergency aspect Tom as the reporter asked that very question. It wasnt even clear if its to free up beds.
Very often when your hospital stay is over, it does not mean you have been automatically restored to rude health...it just means you have to go home and recuperate elsewhere. People can be still in a delicate state of health
I suspect the reason for this is that they just want to spread the discharge workload between all the shifts evenly...but not an expert myself but just guessing.
But it does seem rather odd the whole thing.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#4
just to add to what paul has said, as far as i know there is not always a senior doctor on shift at night and i doubt that any admin staff would be on duty.
i am ready to be corrected on that.
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
#5
"Sir Bruce Keogh said: "I am concerned to hear that some patients may be being discharged unnecessarily late."
" unnecessarily late"!!!! A phrase to conjure with.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/inquiry-overnight-patient-discharges-111127996.htmlIgnorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
#6
This is a scandal and the Times did a good job in highlighting it. It is also old news and some of us have been flagging it for years. It also chimes with the idea of "bed blockers" which is real and holds up care for many people: this is when people cannot be discharged from hospital because there is insufficient support for them at home or no appropriate residential or nursing placement. This puts the "bed blockers" at risk as well as people needing the beds. It also humiliates the people left in hospital as I have actually heard professionals standing at someones bedside refer to them, in their hearing, as a bed blocker. Imagine how that feels if you are alreaty frail and disempowered, possibly already feeling a bit of a burden. Outrageous.
Only when health and social services work in partnership can this be rectified. And that will never happen without serious reform.
Guest 675- Registered: 30 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,610
#7
It goes on a lot, I was once taken to Canterbury with chronic chest pains (after it taking the ambulance two hours to get to me because of a tail-back on the A20). At about 2 in the morning they declared that it was 'not a heart attack' and I should go home. They also told me that a taxi would only cost about £8 from Canterbury to Dover at that time of night. When I asked what the pain was I was advised to see my GP who could order more tests. That time I slept in the waiting room and Stewart Dimmock very kindly collected me in the morning.
Another time an ambulance was called at about 11pm because my eldest daughter, Honor, was having a violent allergic reaction to penicillin. We were rushed to Ashford where she was examined and given anti histamine. After an hour a nurse reappeared, examined her and said she was fine and we could go home, it was about 1:30 am. As the cash point in the hospital was not working I told her there was no way we could get home until the morning and so I would not be waking her up and getting her out of bed until then. I should add that it was a quiet night and there was nobody in the A&E and there were empty beds. After some debate which made it clear I was not changing my mind, the nurse disappeared for ten minutes then came back and said they had arranged transport.
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.
Richard Armour
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
#8
one word,dis gust ing.
#9
As Bern says it is a distressingly common practice
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#10
all the above just confirms what i have already thought and said about the graveyard shift in hospitals.
until managers and consultants leave their comfy chairs and start doing the hours that patients need them nothing will change.
#11
Those managers and consultants will know about these dreadful practices and their absence condones them.
#12
When my son was 5 days old and rushed into padua ward not long ago we were discharged at midnight it does happen a hell of a lot