Hospital discharge with care package- how long?

[TheThinWhiteDutchess]

My Dad is medically fit for discharge but needs a care plan before he can go home (carers etc).
The hospital discharge team are awaiting the care plan before they discharge him. How long can/should this take? And is there any merit in calling social services to try and speed things up?

Any advice welcome!

The hospital themselves usually speed things along, because they want the bed to be released. Ask the discharge team who it is who usually sorts these things out.

Keep chasing the discharge team at the hospital, or there may be one specifically for the ward. After my mum came out of hospital last year it only took a few days, but with MIL (more care needed) it took several weeks.

As yesthat said the hospital will have a clear process for this and if he's medically fit will want him discharged ASAP. It could be worth a call to the ward to ask who is responsible for this (it may be ASC or it may be a different team as different authorities manage discharges differently)
The hold up could be capacity for care in the community as there is nationally a real shortage which is impacting on finding the right care.

Exactly this.

My mum was in hospital for 2 weeks, then discharged to a Care Home for 6 weeks because the hospital needed the bed. She does have a few health issues though, so I think that's why it took so long. She's now back home with a decent care package in place.

Thanks all 🙂

Can I ask, for those of you who have had relatives in a similar position, did you find it easy to extend the care if they needed it beyond the six weeks after leaving hospital?

The NHS pay for the discharge ‘enablement’ package, sending NHS employed staff, so calling social services won’t help.

The NHS do sort of sub-contract to Adult Services if they can’t put enough care in place fast enough, though.

For care packages at home it depends on the area how long it takes. Currently where I work it’s taking only a few days to arrange care packages and get people home. However over Winter the same process was taking weeks if not months for out of area patients.

It sounds like they’re waiting for a full assessment of his needs to see what POC he needs. This is done by occupational therapists and physiotherapist (and for some areas the nurse as well). If you are NOK they’ll be giving you a call shortly to get his baseline, they then pass this info on the social and then social will call you. Also they will order any necessary equipment which will allow him to live as independent as possible at home, which normally arrives the day after ordering. I expect PT/OT will see him tomorrow giving the time it is now.

The teams involved will be working as fast as they can to get him home already as it’s a priority for hospitals to move medically fit patients out of the ward to prevent ‘bed blocking’ and encourage patient flow in hospitals.

As part of the hospital discharge package there should be an assessment as to whether ‘Continuing Care’ is necessary, as provided by Adult Services. This will happen before the NHS package finishes.

i actually work for a care company and I deal with this!
is your dad social funded or self funded (private)
if private, you’ll get a care company fairly quickly (I know it’s so wrong)
social services funded, Can take weeks. Being in hospital and needing to be discharged he will be higher on the list. But still could be a while.
once a company is found, he’ll come home and the sign up should be done same day or next day at latest.

the 6 week care you get after leaving hospital In theory should continue until a permanent care company is found.

Some fantastic advice here, thanks. I didn't realise that social services weren't involved yet. I've been told that once a care package is put in place a social worker will be allocated, is that correct?

@Snowpatrolling I'm not sure but he's got money although he's a pensioner and no financial assessment has been done. I think he has some savings so I imagine he'd need to use that (I think he's considered using that money for care of needed).

He is currently feeling like a few week's care should be enough, but I think we need to consider the possibility that it is not and some ongoing help is needed.

There are two options depending on your Dad's medical conditions.

1. if he's had an operation etc and he will recover, but needs some help in the next few weeks...up to six weeks. The NHS will fund and this should be obtained quickly. The idea is that the calls will eventually stop.


2. If he has a condition where he will need possible long term care in his home, then social services will provide this care. This is for up to six weeks to see how he manages before an official care package is requested. It could be that he needs less calls than were originally put in. Then he will go onto a care agency in the community. The initial offer could be weeks as social care are really struggling at present.


3. Like someone said earlier, he could be transferred to a care home, but this is really unlikely unless he needs long term care in a care home. It occurs occasionally if the hospitals are on black opal, but this isn't currently a problem at the moment.


4. If the NHS option has been explored and they find he's going to need long term care, they would refer through to social services anyway.

He'd need to have £23.5k savings for social services to expect him to pay for everything. I think that's the current rate...or thereabouts. However, if he needs help with personal care or his memory, then you're entitled to apply for Attendance Allowance and this isn't means tested.

I manage the rehab NHS team in point 1.

@B1rdflyinghigh that's so helpful, thank you.

That is so helpful thank you @B1rdflyinghigh

You're welcome. Hope he gets home soon!

Thank you @Snowpatrolling

If we get desperate and want to go private to get him home, do you know how we would get the ball rolling on this? And would we upset anyone as they'll have wasted time getting NHS care sorted?