To be angry about how long it took to be discharged from hospital yesterday?

[Kirisox]

Gave birth to DS last Saturday afternoon via emcs and both he and I had further complications resulting in a stay in hospital. I was told by both of our doctors at 11am on Friday that they were happy for us to be discharged today, but I would just need to wait for my notes and prescription.
My poor, supportive, amazing DP and I were still waiting to leave with very few updates at 6 pm and eventually left at 7. I can honestly say today was the low point of what was otherwise a reasonable post natal care experience.
The main delay was caused by the labour ward failing to have written up my notes when I left there for the post natal care, and when this was done my attending midwife was unsure of how to use the relevant computer system to transfer the notes (or something like that...). This is the same labour ward who failed to recognise how much blood i lost during surgery which meant i needed a transfusion on Monday.
AIBU to think it's being unreasonable to wait this long for discharge paperwork?

ha ha in order to take prescription to chemist you'd have to get out before it shut!!

I couldn't just walk we were waiting for a blood test that everyone was avoiding dealing with because it was easier for them to do so and hoping it would go away

It's not free, it really gets my goat when people say that

postnatal midwives are not delivering babies (usually) in my case the Doc was watching TV!! is that really more important? the midwives were frequently trying to get into the drug cupboard (new system noone had access anywhere not even to the way out) it was simply poorly run inadequately staffed chaos

Often it is midwife (in the singular) on the post natal ward. And thats the problem. Not enough qualified staff who can actually do the discharges.

your story is very typical of post natal wards, they are soooo short staffed, just wait until all the new government changes and cuts really kick in, i work in that area so i can say with confidence WATCH OUT the cuts are going to be horrendous, dangerous even, sorry!

Remember a ward is not a prison, you can leave when you like.

Further to all that has been said (and I know it is hard waiting to be discharged when you want to go home) but sadly midwifery provision is thinly spread (and I fear going to get worse) and so midwife won't just have one woman and baby to care for. I have come on shift and had 2 bays of women and babies all wanting discharge that day, I'm not superwoman and it is inevitable that someone will be first to get discharged and that someone will have to be last.
Even then, as you are plugging away at the work to be done and paperwork, you may get two women discharged, but before you can move on , two women are admitted from delivery suite, what then is your priority, a healthy woman and baby awaiting discharge, or a woman that may have had complications or surgery and need close monitoring, or a woman trying to establish breastfeeding? Its not easy.
I'm not making excuses, and there are some staff that work harder than others, so sometimes what should be a straightforward isn't as you realise stuff hasn't been done etc.

YANBU.

When I had DS2(nearly 10 years ago now) he was born at 8pm on the Tues. I, and my then P, wanted to go home with DS2 there and then (partly in exP's case because he wanted to go to work the following day but thats another story!). This was after having gone through my whole labour (bar the last 10 mins) alone as midwife was busy elsewhere, and P was in waiting room with DS1.

However we were told no doctors were available to discharge me til the next morning so I would have to stay overnight. I did say well what if I discharge myself, and was told in no uncertain terms that it would be very unwise.

The next day, we ended up waiting til about 5pm to be discharged. Was far from happy, esp since actually wanted to go home the night before! And other than breakfast we had nothing to eat. Thankfully I had an emergency chocolate stash to keep me going :)

That should say I had nothing to eat. DS2 was being contendly breastfed and unaware of my hunger pangs :)

Stoatie - Is no-one within your department bothered by this state of affairs? It sounds like things could be organised better - If you have 2 bays of people all waiting to go home, and you were able to discharge them more easily, then you would have 2 empty bays, which must be easier, and would then give more time to deal with the new patients.

eviscerateyourmemory - if it was happening on a daily basis I hope that management would do something, unfortunately maternity can be unpredictable in that you can have very very hectic days on delivery suite (new moon anyone which has knock on affect on post natal ward etc, but also very quiet days, so management reluctant to "overstaff" IYSWIM.

I try and get discharges done as efficiently as I can (I can remember wanting to "escape" myself) unfortunately discharge paperwork is complex - another story there!