Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

Can they prevent me leaving?

169 replies

LaurieFairyCake · 02/03/2024 10:18

I have to have a general anaesthetic and then be discharged the same day.

My partner can't come and get me.

Can I discharge myself. The nurse said 'they wouldn't let me leave unless I was with someone'

Anyone know?

OP posts:
Imposter1212 · 02/03/2024 12:01

I feel utterly dreadful after a general. My blood pressure drops below 80 so no way could I walk alone.

I had an endoscope a year back and when I phoned to book and request sedation they repeatedly told me I would need someone to pick me up if I was having sedation. They would also check that I had someone and need to meet them when I checked in.

My husband had to drop me at the ward and hand over his contact details. There was a woman behind me who said her husband was at work and was picking her up. He wasn't there at drop off so they gave her 2 choices - she could either just have throat spare with no sedation or could cancel and wait on a reschedule letter to rebook. She complainrd as she had waited 8 months already but ultimately left.

So I imagine if you tell them you won't be picked up and their rules are you need to be picked up they would consider cancelling your surgery.

Oinkypig · 02/03/2024 12:02

I was just going to say if you tell them you don’t have someone they will cancel your surgery. Sometimes what happens if someone doesn’t have anyone to come with them they will be admitted overnight, it’s actually quite rare that a person has no one at all, in 17 years of providing procedures in day surgery I’ve only known it to happen twice. You might feel awful after though and you really shouldn’t be driving so I wouldn’t lie to them that your partner is coming but if you do and you feel fine of course you can leave it’s not prison. Hope you get sorted either way.

Moier · 02/03/2024 12:08

You can sit in the day room until you can arrange someone to collect you.. I've had loads of day surgery and no way would l want to go home on my own. I always made sure someone was with me for at least 24 hours.

TiptoeTess · 02/03/2024 12:11

I think they’d cancel your surgery.

Peekaboobo · 02/03/2024 12:13

Yes you need to be picked up and have someone with you for 24-48 hours after surgery/general anesthetic.

Why can't your partner do it?

Peekaboobo · 02/03/2024 12:14

It doesn't have to be your partner who comes to collect you. Any friend or relative could do it. As long as they get you home and you feel ok then you can always tell them it's ok to go.

Octavia64 · 02/03/2024 12:16

You can discharge yourself, yes.

The risk you run is that you have some kind of reaction to the anaesthetic or indeed the operation. If someone is with you they can get help fast.

If you are on your own you cannot and you might wind up in a very bad way indeed.

Don't even consider driving yourself home.

olympicsrock · 02/03/2024 12:19

Why can’t your partner come and get you?
You are allowed to wait longer if someone works and can only come later. Surely you have someone you can ask?

BlueSkyBlueLife · 02/03/2024 12:55

You have no idea how well or unwell you’ll feel after the surgery,

If they ask for someone to take you back home (and stay with you) there is a reason - that actually people feeling unwell and needing to be looked after happens often enough.
I personally wouldn’t gamble on that.

JanewaysBun · 02/03/2024 13:00

Ive left on my own before, it was into a taxi and i said dh would be home so they were happy i wasnt fully alone

dottiedodah · 02/03/2024 13:03

I doubt they will do the surgery TBH.You would have to re schedule if your DP cant come .You need to be observed when you come home

Kimmeridge · 02/03/2024 13:09

SheepAndSword · 02/03/2024 11:03

Can the hospital provide transport?

Transport for someone self discharging against medical advice. There's 2 chances of that

seven201 · 02/03/2024 13:13

They let me get a taxi as my dh was at home waiting (with a toddler well past her bed time).

TheTimeIsNowMaybeNow · 02/03/2024 13:18

I'd book a taxi home

TakeMe2Insanity · 02/03/2024 13:19

You can leave but its against medical advice.

FionnulaTheCooler · 02/03/2024 13:22

wurtle · 02/03/2024 11:28

I am having day surgery in future and planning to walk home alone. I live twenty minutes walk from hospital.

This is a bad idea. After having a procedure done under sedation recently, my legs were so wobbly I could barely make it to the car park without physical support. No chance I could have walked for 20 minutes.

Miyagi99 · 02/03/2024 13:22

LaurieFairyCake · 02/03/2024 10:18

I have to have a general anaesthetic and then be discharged the same day.

My partner can't come and get me.

Can I discharge myself. The nurse said 'they wouldn't let me leave unless I was with someone'

Anyone know?

I did but I told them I was getting a taxi and had someone staying with me overnight (I didn’t but family checked in with me).

PawsisShady · 02/03/2024 13:24

I did and got a taxi home, my neighbour checked on me
I recover v quickly from GA though and am usually eating within an hour of waking up then can't sleep for 2 days!

romdowa · 02/03/2024 13:26

At my local hospital if you tell them that you've nobody to collect you then they'll refuse to do the procedure.

Andthereyougo · 02/03/2024 13:27

Get a taxi. Tell them a non- driver relative or friend is waiting at home.

Miyagi99 · 02/03/2024 13:27

romdowa · 02/03/2024 13:26

At my local hospital if you tell them that you've nobody to collect you then they'll refuse to do the procedure.

So you tell them after that your lift has fallen through and get a taxi. They won’t want you taking up a bed.

Zyq · 02/03/2024 13:36

Can you just wait in the waiting area till your partner or someone else can come to collect you?

Can your partner really not get time off for this purpose?

Beveren · 02/03/2024 13:38

What sort of surgery is it? When I had day surgery recently I was discharged with hefty padding and lots of tissues and an ice pack in case of breakthrough bleeding. I doubt any cab would welcome that.

GingerLiberalFeminist · 02/03/2024 13:40

Ime the hospital wont let you leave without someone there. My ExH went and 'released' my mum after a colonoscopy so she could drive home. They wouldn't let her go otherwise.

TheSandgroper · 02/03/2024 13:43

Not in the UK/ NHS but my D Cannot-tell-a-lie B as he was in the bed being prepped for a GA camera up the bum said he was driving himself home to an empty house. This was about his fifth edition of the same surgery so he knew how he was going to cope with it.

Reader, they cancelled his surgery and sent him home.