Hospital discharge

[ILiveInAPineappleCoveredInSnow]

I am sat here absolutely raging. My husband was supposed to be discharged from hospital at lunchtime, (so the dr and ward sister told him) so I arranged to get out of work to get here for lunch. Sat here for two hours then they said there was a hold up - and now it would be nearer to 5. So it's now 6.45 and still we are waiting, the nurses keep fobbing me off and I've had to ring my parents to pick my son up - they managed to get him at 6.10 luckily I rang his after school club and they were happy to wait as they actually finish at 6. My son is now sat in my parents' car outside my house, 30 mins away from the hospital, and I still have no idea when they are actually going to pull their finger out and get him discharged!!!!!!

Have had to ring them and say to take him to their house now as they have been sat outside mine for 45 mins now and could potentially be at least another hour :-(

I'm really angry and my pregnancy hormones are not helping at all!!!!!

Do you think I would be unreasonable to write and complain?

Our hospital discharges people at 11 at night. I was horrified when they kicked the man out who was sleeping in the bed next to dh. They woke him up and handed him a phone and told him to make arrangements ASAP for collection.

We were sat there like idiots waiting for Dhs appendix to be removed urgently which took 14 hours to arrange whilst he rolled around in agony. Thank god for pain relief, he looked like a hardened drug addict by the time we got out of there

I hope you arnt in for an all nighter

It's annoying but you don't sound like you're higher priority than looking after someone who is very unwell.

Are you still in a ward OP, or a discharge lounge?

Still on the ward. About to go and create a fuss!!!

Have they had a lot of emergencies?

It doesn't take 7 hours to get TTOs, 3 at most.

If you're on a ward there must be registered nurses around but they will have to prioritise sick people.
Ask to speak to the nurse in charge.

Off on tangent, but Why don't your parents have your house keys for this sort of incident. Hope you're home soon

I'd have long ago gone home and said anything that needs collecting from the pharmacy, I will come back for later, but I have been known to discharge myself from 'not' resting in the antenatal ward.

I remember the days working as a nurse. We and the patients spent most of the time waiting for the pharmacy to get their arse in gear and dispense the medication. I remember once they had completely sent them to the wrong ward, I took great delight telling them how shit they were.Then once I was a patient and I had this cream dispensed from the pharmacy to take home and it was out of date.

the fact of the matter is if the hospital is busy they need your dh's bed and they need to get him out of it. Represents thinking that isn't joined up; isn't service orientated and doesn't care. national health SERVICE my backside.

Kasterborous or pharmacy (knowing you're waiting for urgent TTOs) give them all to the porter to deliver. On his trip round the entire hospital.

Are you home yet?

Just got home!
There was some issue with the drugs, which is why they were getting the matron- supposedly they weren't happy with him having what the dr prescribed, but when she eventually came she said it was fine!!!!

My parents did have a key but we had to have a lock replaced a couple of weeks ago so we haven't given them a new key yet - typical!

Totally shattered now so I am off to bed. Thanks for the replies!!

And they did need the bed - they had patients breaching in A&E, I could here them discussing it at the nurses station!!!

Awww ...so how is your DH?

I don't know if this will be relevant for you but this was my experience....my grandfather was in and out of hospital in his later years. He was on a lot of medication and getting the meds signed off and dispensed was always an issue on discharge. They used to let me take him home once the doctor had done rounds then I'd phone to check the meds were available and go back in and run through doses etc with a nurse or if they'd changed the combination a doctor.

This is just like my first MN post - I was sitting on the post natal ward having been in for 7 days, they told me at 10am that I'd be leaving n the afternoon - we were still there at 9pm!

Really that all sounds very odd.

Not disbelieving you at all, just wondering what the ward staff were worrying about.

What people don't realise is that if a doc prescribes the wrong drug/ dose, the pharmacist dispenses the wrong drug/dose, and if the nurse administers the prescribed/ dispensed wrong drug dose it is the nurse who will be disciplined.

Was he discharged on anything unusual? Really not trying to worry you, it maybe that they weren't familiar with the drugs and not confident in giving advice.

But you're home now and hope he's comfortable and recovering well.

He's ok, just given him some more pain relief, so he will go back to sleep soon.

Supposedly the nurse wasn't happy because they were discharging him on oramorph and tramadol, and with 2 different antiemetics, and he thought he shouldn't be taking both antiemetics, and that he shouldn't have the oramorph and tramadol together (he's been taking it all week!)

I don't know if the nurse will get disciplined for handing out the drugs that the pharmacist dispensed, but if so, fair enough. My main issue is why not tell me that though. And I told them at 4pm that I needed to leave by 5.15 to pick my son up, and they said that would be fine, I'd rather they said actually there's an issue and we don't know how long it's going to take to sort out. At least that way I'd have gone back to get my son and not had the giant faff that happened!

There's a lot to be said for honesty and openness!

Glad it's sorted and we are home in our own bed tonight though! Just a shame this seems to happen to so many people, I really didn't realise that was the case!!!

Yes the person who administers the drug is officially the one who is in the wrong.

I too would have been a bit 'oh' at tramadol and oramorph, depending on patient history and what's been done. Please please tell me he's also on some form of laxative.

But you're totally right about the openness, they should have told you there was an issue and they didn't know really how long it would take to sort.

No laxative but I will buy him some lactulose if he starts to have issues. Maybe it will stop him being as gassy ;-) hopes, but probably in vain

Supposedly the nurse wasn't happy because they were discharging him on oramorph and tramadol

I can see why this was flagged, probably at pharmacy and by the nurses when it got to the ward.

That is some serious pain relief, your poor dh must be in agony, I hope he is better soon.

Make sure he's drinking lots of water, to be honest on both of them it would be unusual if he didn't get bunged up.

Hope he's feeling better soon. And you look after yourself too people underestimate how tiring and stressful looking after an ill partner is.

Glad your home now but assuming your dh is a grown up with no communication issues why on earth did you have to wait with him?