Hospital discharge - ask about Covid tests

[AChickenCalledDaal]

On the off chance that anyone here has a parent on the brink of leaving hospital ... please ask awkward questions about Covid testing. I've just been told my 85 year old parent is Covid positive ... 24 hours after leaving hospital. They did a test before discharge but didn't wait for the result.

He lives in a sheltered housing complex with 40+ elderly residents. In that period, I have had contact with him, so have a carer and a hospital physio. And I had a nice long chat yesterday with the warden - thankfully I was wearing a mask, but he's still not happy and I can't blame him.

I just can't comprehend that we are still getting this stuff wrong.

Was it the pre-discharge test or having left hospital? We heard that in the first wave infections were happening during discharge/transfer while waiting for transport.

They took a swab in the hospital 24 hours before he was discharged. Then sent him home before the result came back. Apparently on the grounds that he had tested negative a week before (also in hospital) and "couldn't possibly" have been infected on the ward. Well apparently he could!

That's so awful for for you, your DF and everyone else you've come into contact with.

How's he feeling?

Unfortunately I've no idea how he's feeling. He's ended up back in a different hospital having also fallen several times on his first morning home (which is when I saw him). He's incoherent on the phone. The whole situation is complicated and unfolding very fast ... but this latest development has given me the rage.

That's terrible Chicken. Are the ward able to tell you how he is?

I’m so sorry OP.

All I'm getting from the ward is "he's doing ok" and deep sighs about how busy and exhausted they are. Which is not exactly reassuring but I don't have the energy to raise merry hell right now.

Just hoping this thread might help someone else ask the right questions and dig their heels in. Like I probably should have done two days ago. At least then I would only be worrying about dad and not all the people he's been in contact with.

My DM was released last week with covid with two days left to go before she was considered non infectious back home to my 80 year old DF. Goodness knows why they couldn't have waited 48 hours as she was in a ward with other covid patients and now they have transported her, got health visitors and nurses etc visiting and my DF is there. It's crazy

It is crazy, isn't it. And I guess it's an indication of the level of pressure for beds. Hope you're doing ok gottakeeponmovin.