Hi Miss Triggs,
This all sounds familiar. Three years ago, following a fall and a hip operation DM was supposed to go to the Alderney. Then they phoned three days before Christmas telling me that she would be discharged instead. They then helpfully reoperated on her wrist the next day leaving her completely unable to use a walker. The hospital notes later quoted by the memory clinic claimed she was "very confused". In fact she had not been able to give names of relatives and we only found her by phoning round hospitals. She would have been discharged to an empty flat in a block where she was the only permanent resident. I later discovered her heating was not working and there was no real food (Mars Bars and Magnums only) in the fridge.
Unfortunately I knew nothing about the system so did not know about the need to seek Social Services involvement. My guess is that there is a lot of demand, or perhaps a lot of bed blocking, at the Alderney.
By chance I had googled convalenscent care a few days earlier and had spoken to the first people who popped up. They were very helpful, so I mentioned their name to the discharge person who phoned. "ah the Hilton of care homes" she said. By chance they had one spare bed and could take a discharge on Christmas Eve.
Mostly it worked well. It was a bit like a luxury hotel with lovely food (I could join her for lunch which was great as I live some distance away and spent my days racing around), she was encouraged to join in activities, and the nursing care was good. (Even more shocking was the fact that neither my mother's GP nor Social Services were informed of her discharge. The nursing staff spotted a pin in her hip that needed removing, but did not know that there were staples in her wrist below the heavy bandage that also needed to go. Neither were in the discharge notes.) But I would have had to buy in physio.
It was very expensive (£1300 a week) but this was the time to spend rainy day money, plus it bought me time and meant that I was able to sort out suitable longer term accomodation.
You should be aware that if he leaves hospital there may be a wait for community physio to gear up. It was about six weeks in my mums case, so you need to make sure he is put on the wait list as soon as possible. The hospital physio bent the rules and my mum stayed on their books for twice a week appointments until these took over. They also took me through priorities, essentially she just needed to walk as much as she could. DM was able to walk agonisingly slowly before leaving hospital but needed help to move from sitting to standing etc. Her problems with short term memory were not a bad thing as it meant she was always willing to try and walk as she would forget it would be painful.
I don't know what you need to get him on his feet, but once he is mobilised a carer could help. I initially employed someone a couple of hours a day, with the short walks both providing the needed physio and helping orientate her to her new (sheltered) accomodation. It would also be a way of getting your mother used to having outside help, as the carer would then be someone "medical" helping with the recovery rather than because she is not coping.
My feeling was that the General Anesthetic plus the shock and the move had a huge impact on my mother's capacity. Four months after her fall, when she was both mobile and settled, she improved a lot.
It was a bleak time. Do PM me if you want anything further. I am not the only MNetter who visits that bit of the South Coast regularly. If there are others, also feel to PM. In the early days I found it very useful to swap knowledge of bits of the local system. By and large elderly provision is good, but a lot is accessed by askng for it, rather than by it being offered.