NHS physio / rehab for elderly parent miles from home and family - options?

[MrsTomHardy13]

Parent currently in hospital following a fall with a plan to discharge to a rehabilitation hospital to help get back mobile. The hospital they are in is not in the same county as their GP surgery. Seemingly it is the GP surgery location that dictates the rehabilitation location. It would mean parent having to be transferred around 2 hours away and would mean a 4 hour round trip for visitors. The journey alone would be a lot for them right now and we feel not being able to have regular visiting would not be in their best interests from a mental health and interaction point of view.

Has anyone had anything similar, or been able to get parent into a more local / convenient NHS facility at all? Basically been told by the hospital that it's either this or find private care home which is going to be a slower process and would have to pay for. Any advice would be appreciated.

We had similar but only an hour. My DM had rehab at the top of her county living at the bottom of the county, but we were nearly 2hrs south of there again.

Rehab beds are limited.

Can you stay over nearby and so do visits on adjacent days, and then fill in with phone calls?

It just totally depends on where there is space, it’s often the case that the only available place isn’t a local one and it is either take that or fund privately yourselves closer to home

Rehab beds are limited, so it's not possible to be able to choose. It's based on what's nearest to the home address with availability (which is why they have to cast the net wider on most occasions)
I assume your relative would have to pay due to being self funding (ie own their own home) so whilst they're entitled to 6 weeks funding for rehab social services wouldn't agree to something more expensive on grounds of distance

This is quite standard. There is not an abundance of rehab beds and rehab care is usually within your GP area/your address due to funding. It is unlikely to wash that you need somewhere convenient to you (which is the issue clearly)

How do you normally visit your relative? you can always try and ask for somewhere nearer but there may not actually be anywhere

I work for a community team. An option would be for them to change GP, using your address or similar, so that they can be discharged somewhere nearer to family. Can always change back again afterwards. These days with electronic records it really is less of a big deal to do that than back in the days when your little packet of records had to be sent across the country taking weeks. But I would talk to the hospital team to find out if doing that would allow them to change the discharge plan.

Have you asked if there is any possibility of a discharge home with community follow up? An Occupational Therapist may be your best bet to talk to about this. Obviously this would depend upon many factors, eg capacity, night time needs, ability to transfer, home environment, need / availability of carers etc.