Ensuring safe discharge

@Dibble135 Medically fit doesn’t mean DM can cope. SS should assess help in the home. I think physio assesses physio needs. OT should also be involved. Which ever way you look at it, it’s going to be very hard to keel
her at home safely.

Yes. That’s what I would have expected for someone in their mid 90s. The other huge get out clause is that DMs nearest hospital isn’t technically in Bucks. It’s the shit show that’s MK hospital. DM died earlier this year and the only kind people I dealt with were care home staff. Otherwise it was a conveyor belt of indifference and non communication. For weeks on end.

Based on my experience as a care needs assessor mention safeguarding risks a lot. Sending mum home without a package of care is a safeguarding risk, mention their legal responsibilities to show you understand what they are.
Unfortunately I'm a long way from there so no personal experience of their practice to share but for us this would be triaged as 24 urgent assessment needed based on what you have said

@Needamagicfairy Buckinghamshire ignore their legal responsibilities. I doubt they are alone and what do you do in the meantime? I’ve actually been phoned up and told DM was ready to go and could I come in at 10 am? That was in an hour. Never talked to anyone in the hospital about anything surrounding discharge.

Also phone adult social care and ask for an urgent care needs assessment under the care act. This will determine if she has long term eligible needs. If she does then a financial assessment will be done and she may be entitled to support towards paying for any care or care home if needed.
Again mention you fear for an unsafe discharge and potential re-admittance

Mum was in a similar position in Hospital this year. She was assessed in hospital and they decided she could go home and would arrange carers 4 times a day. I absolutely refused to allow that as it would have left her bedbound and just moved/toileted 4 times a day. We decided that she would get much better care and company in a care home which we could choose as mum has the money to pay for it. She has now been in a local care home for two months. Enjoys the company and the activities and looks better than she has in years.

An OT at her house! WOW!

I did but it wears you out! It never feels good enough and it’s a constant worry. One issue with just a phone call telling you to pick up DM is that you will disappoint DM if you don’t. They want to be home and say they will manage. The hospital never talked to me about how I would manage. I’m an OAP too! If you get lucky and actually talk to someone and DM doesn’t want to go home, you might get a care home instead. When I got discharge calls DM was packed and ready to go! Just not in the end.

DM repeatedly lied about what she could do too. One OP did speak to me on one occasion and listed what DM was cooking and how marvellous she was. It was what I cooked! She turned her heating off and the hot water too. So they don’t get an accurate picture at all. Anyway - I’ve said enough. Stand your ground and do your best.

A few years ago (when my DM was alive) she was getting ready for discharge from hospital. The hospital arranged a home visit by an OT to assess how DM would manage. The OT brought DM to the house and I met then there. After the assessment the OT took DM back to the hospital and they were then able to work on a couple of things in prep for her discharge. So in theory, all would have been well. Except, whoever discharged her forgot to tell the Social worker that she'd been sent home, which meant that the care package wasn't activated and so no carers turned up to help her get dinner or to get ready for bed. I had a few choice words with the ward sister that night but the words "unsafe discharge" were the magic words that got everyone moving.

I was 75 miles away caring for a disabled family member at the time so DM was totally alone.

My DM got to 99 with fuck all. It’s definitely a post code lottery. I tried over and over when DM was 97/98 after hospital stays to get her assessed. Just told no. They had no staff. It’s actually a very upsetting. You don’t get to speak to anyone. They don’t put you through to senior people at SS.

The doctors don’t speak to you.The GP won’t speak to you. No conference about how needs can be met. After 5 weeks of no contact with doctors I made a huge fuss as DM wasn’t improving. I got a surly doctor phone me up. She said “I’ve got 5 minutes before I go off duty - what do you want to know?” She confessed she had failed to get the pain team to visit DM. She had no idea about anything really. I guess the pain team was busy with younger folk. They never did visit my distressed mum. Weeks go by and you know nothing about anything. The elderly are just left at the bottom of the heap. DM was transferred to the care home in immense pain. Don’t get old. There is little care that’s suitable or even caring.

yep do not even five any kind of hint you can manage her at home or they will latch onto that basically she needs to stay where she is unless she can be looked after in a care home or with carers do not allow them to discharge her keep repeating its not safe as there is no one to look after it is up to the hospital to ensure safe duscage and that care is in place before discharging and not necessarily from the family

Reading this makes me realise how lucky I (or rather my mother) have been. She was only discharged from hospital earlier this year having broken her hip after a full 're-enablement' package lasting six weeks was put in place - carers coming in four times a day. Also physios and occupational therapists on a regular basis to assess what she could and couldn't do in the way of washing, dressing,cooking, giving herself her medication etc. Items such as a commode for downstairs and a frame for over the upstairs toilet were delivered quickly and free of charge. After six weeks they agreed that she still needed some care, and although she now pays for it, it was arranged and managed by the local council.

The hospital tried to discharge my mother in law after brain surgery with no care plan in place. She was desperate to get home. They rang everyone in the family but we all refused to be responsible for her. Definitely not safe x

Just say its an unsafe discharge and there is noone to take care of her. Hospital's are notorious for sending people home without a care plan or equipment in place. Sorry your mum is ill. Ask for a meeting with the ward manager or senior nurse and explain why its an unsafe discharge. Good luck x

Hospital physio in the same hospital as mum I mean just collected her in a wheelchair and returned to her ward after.

Ours get the physio to watch while the elderly person dies chores in a room made up like a house. Making a cup of tea, going upstairs etc. using toilet.

They then recommend what needs to be done. Then I liaised with our councils team to get carers in and modifications done (handrails mostly and a bathing contraption) before she was allowed home as it would be an unsafe discharge without all those measures being in place.

Unsafe discharge. Over and over.

@Dibble135 If your DM has savings over a certain amount (I think £23,000) the LA will not pay 1p. Could be less the man that. If she’s next to no savings, but has a property, you need to negotiate. The LA will offer what’s cheapest for them. Not what’s best for DM.