Patients with nobody to take them home after surgery

[Aerom]

I do wonder how do the NHS cope with patients who have no one to take them home after surgery. There are people living alone with nobody to take them home or have somewhere to stay overnight. Or could have their regular friends who would have done this but on holiday, busy at work, unable to drive due to injury or recovering from surgery themselves.

The patients are not allowed to go by public transport or taxi.

The ambulances are usually for the elderly

I will eventually have no one to pick me up in years to come

my mum got a taxi when no one could collect . She did have dad at home but he didn’t take care of her. I’d guarantee she cooked tea that night.

There was a better option - she could have stayed in but she chose to put herself at extra risk. Lying about having support is a really bad idea - lots of people say they ‘feel fine’ after surgery )it’s not just the anaesthetic/sedation that’s important it’s the whole procedure too. Just occasionally though they will not be fine….its not a million miles away from drunk people/people in recreational drugs thinking they’ll be fine to do complex manoeuvres… sometimes they’re not and with disastrous consequences. People who’ve had drugs that interfere with cognition and capacity are not always in the best position to make decisions about what’s safe. Aside from the anaesthetic/sedation issues, just every so often post op bleeding becomes a problem, an organ injury becomes obvious, or pain becomes uncontrolled and it isn’t always easy/possible for an unsupported person to manage that on their own. Best bet is not to lie and let the hospital support their safe care.

Such silly rules. I had the most minor of procedures, an ingrown toenail removed with a tiny bit of local anaesthetic. They wouldn’t let me leave the clinic unless someone else picked me up and drove me home. I have an automatic/electric and don’t need the foot that was affected to drive anyway. I did get DH to collect me, but that meant two small DC in tow who had to hang around whilst I had the procedure done as the hospital was miles from home. I would lie next time!

They kept me in for the night. I was allowed to get a taxi home next morning.

Are you sure you won’t have someone to help you OP?

If a friend / neighbour / colleague expressed they had this problem, I’d go and pick them up. People are usually happy to help, if they know they can!

Our hospital has a patient transport service. Volunteer drivers, roughly office hours.

Three years ago they let me get up out of the day ward with two drains attached, Less than three hours after Surgery and get an Uber home to my kids who required dinner making.

I think it's so silly and a waste of nhs time and resources. Getting Dh to come abc pick me up is so OTT and unnecessary, especially when you haven't even been sedated. It's overkill.

When we had this issue with my mother, we brought her from the ward to the lobby near the door and sat her down there, then brought the car from the main car park to the entrance.

I think it must vary between hospitals. Our local hospital is very careful about ensuring a nurse accompanies you and hands you over to whichever relative or friend is taking you home.

Some hospitals have or are developing patient hotels, they are not free, you pay a rate similar to a chain like premier inn but they are very near the hospital and the one I know of has emergency buttons in each room and a nurse based there overnight who can be summoned, it also being close can get a medic there quickly. Ideal for those who need accommodation pre op because they need to check it at 6am and ideal for those who live a distance away/late day surgeries/nobody at home

DH’s mobility is severely reduced, he can drive but not really walk. I had explained that he would collect me but not leave the car after my cateract operations so that I would meet him in the car park.

no one objected but come the day a nurse insisted to taking me down to the car park and waiting with me until he arrived, then saw me into the car.

jm not sure what might have happened if they had found out that I was getting into a taxi.

It depends on the procedure, and how long the anaesthetic was, how far you live from the hospital. If someone doesn't have anyone to collect them or stay with them we would make a judgement on the risks associated with sending them home

Some people would go home in a taxi or with volunteer transport. Most we just keep in. It's not uncommon, especially with elderly patients.

If its a relative/friend that can't drive, they come and collect and both go home in a taxi. You can go in a taxi with someone else, it's just that the taxi driver can't be responsible for you

I’ve self discharged before. The no uber/taxi/bus rule is what I don’t get. You can get a uber from the main entrance but the car park can be over a mile walk!

Patient transport, I’ve seen all ages in them.

Even getting from the ward to the lobby is miles in this hospital, although we could possibly have borrowed a wheelchair. Also the pickup place is teeming with cars, taxis, buses, pedestrians and you still have to walk about 100m from the last seating to the nearest car space which wasn't possible for DM last time. Then there's the not knowing what time they will be discharged. Patient transport is available and solves all this.

I had a hysterectomy at 4pm on a Wednesday afternoon, came round about 9pm on the ward. Was discharged at 11am the following morning. The trek to the exit took a comically long time and then I got into a taxi and went home. Staff literally could not have cared less. At 9.30am I'd had a cubicle full of nurses because my blood pressure was so low and 90 minutes later was told to have a wee and leave.

They give you a hospital transport surely? They desperately want their bed back so it's in their interests to get you out asap.

Loads of women on my ortho ward had nobody, no family, no visitors. I felt bad for them as they were only just about mobile but they give them a transport and it's sayonara.

Me too. I was young, all my friends worked and didn’t have cars anyhow so what option did I have?
It must have been frequent because they had reception call me a cab and they watched me get into it.

I'm about to find this out. Minor gynae produce. I'll have people at home as they will WFH, but no car or time to come and get me. Hopefully I can get an uber home.

I was 😱 recently, on hearing that a friend’s dd left hospital very early the morning after the birth of her 4th! - and got 2 buses home.
Presumably she had told them someone was coming to collect her. (Friend doesn’t drive,)

I don’t live far away from either her or the hospital, and would gladly have taken her, but by all accounts she’s fiercely independent.

Isnt there porters or volunteers who could bring them down to pick up point? How odd seems a huge waste of resources.

Add in the complication that the patient may also be a carer ....

Not really, they do the portering then it's only a ten minute drive and they help them into the house. Whereas if we do it then one of us has to take a day off work, drive a considerable distance (we don't live locally) hang around for ages while all the discharge stuff happens as well as getting them in and out of cars. But you are entitled to your opinion.

When a hospital decided that my DF should go home to an empty house they arranged transport, then told me. He was 91, I was 200 miles away.