MiL wants to be discharged to location where she has no GP

[DierdreDaphne]

So MiL is in hospital having fallen and broken her hip while she was in the process of moving to our area from her home in another area. (It was 2 days before the move)

She can't go back to the old flat as it had already been packed up and she wants to be discharged to a care home anyway (she is self funding so can do this), but rather than stay in her current area, she wants to come straight to a home near us. But as she hadn't moved, she us not registered with a GP here. We are sure she will need physio etc and would guess the hospital would ordinarily organise this - but can they do that in a different county? And can they discharge her to community services if she can't register with a gp (I think there may be a waiting list here!)

Any insights into what might be possible in this slightly odd situation gratefully received.

Fur up to three months, she can stay registered with her old gp.

The home probably has GPs they use. I would ring the home and ask them.

Not an Expert, but I would've thought she'd be far better off in her current area with her current GP

My mum's been in a care home twice and it's been in her area. The first time, I was living in a different area but it would never have occurred to us for her to go into a care home near me. Even if she was moving.

One of the first things they'll ask about is her GP. Has she had a visit from any care homes yet? The care home had to visit her in the hospital in order to agree that they could deal with her as a patient. So that was like an assessment visit. I would imagine if you say that you're not local, they might immediately tell you that's a problem.

i'm really sorry you're going through this and her of course, I wish her a speedy recovery.

It will obviously be better for her to be near family , at a push she could pay for private physio whilst the NHS gets sorted although I don’t see it being a big issue .

I don't think it's difficult to move GPs, and the home will have one anyway. If she's being discharged to a nursing home then call them for a chat through practicalities.

The home uses their own gps you don't have to be registered with one they do it for you.

Care homes are really used to people moving in and needing to change GP- it’s not a big problem at all. Might be a couple of days delay to follow up services but nothing huge. Make sure you’ve got copies of her discharge letter to help any communications

Interesting that they would want to assess. She does have family where she is too, but her house was unsuitable (already struggling with the stairs) and she prefers it in our area (more rural, though she will be moving to a town).

But encouraging the home would have gps. She is not planning to reside there - she has a gf level access flat lined up. I'm still concerned about her access to physios as she'll need someone to come to her to begin with I should think? And she definitely needs encouragement to do it, which regular visits would help with - not sure she'd arrange that for herself 🫤

Thank you that's very helpful - as are everyones.posts

If she is going into a care home they sort all that out anyhow..my gran has just moved into one in our area and quick as a flash they had it all sorted for her swapping over

Just to clarify she would be in the home as respite, not a new residece..we very much jope ahe will get most of her mobility back and don't have reason at the moment to think she won't. It's just that first unsteady stage where she will need help dressing, washing and meals cooked stc, we hope.

As pp have said, care homes tend to have residents all registered with a local GP practice they know which makes life easier. But you can also ask to register someone temporarily at your own GP practice, for example, a family member who's staying with you for a few weeks but needs medical attention. This might also work. Ask your GP surgery about this.

I would go for a home near you 100%. It's not like you have a relationship with one GP anyway these days and follow up care is v patchy even when you do.

She can be registered as a temporary resident. This happened with my mum until her care home placement became permanent. The gp visited the home weekly and staff made a list of residents who needed to be seen. The physio could make visits to the home as well as a lady who took blood tests when needed. It was massively helpful as it had become impossible to get my mum to the gp practice or any other services. You’re usually discharged from hospital with medication so the new placement will have that.

GPs will be well used to people moving after a crisis (fall, accident and the likes are common triggers to move).

Moving to the care home temporarily will likely help the situation as they'll know exactly who to contact to put the services in place for her as they'll be experienced in it.

Absolutely she can do that.
She needs to leave hospital with a weeks medication and clear discharge/follow up plan.
Once she has chosen and booked her space in the home she can register with a local gp and records are electronically transferred. This can take some time but aslong as someone is chasing the new surgery to get medications let's listed and contacting local services for physio then it shouldn't be an issue for rehab.

As others have said, GP is not a problem at all. Homes always have a regular one that residents are registered with as default (locals can probably stay with their existing GP if they want but it's more convenient to use the home' one who will do routine visits every few days rather than having to book appointments through the usual surgery systems).

Moving area might mean a bit of delay on physio, but if she's looking to regain significant function I would very strongly recommend getting a visiting private physio (or a home that has one on site). We found NHS services utterly useless - thry just left a set of printed instructions for exercises, then came back 6 weeks later to sign off with a 'nothing more we can do' despite not having actually done anything.

Had experience of this recently, although to another home rather than a care home. It needed to be sorted in advance of discharge. We registered as a temporary patient and the GP surgery gave a kind of registration number for this. This number was given to the discharge team to allow discharge to a different address. It did make everything a little slower and more complicated but wasn't too bad. Definitely chase up if extra provisions are needed like physio to make sure they go through the new practice and not the home one as things can easily slip through the cracks.

This is all really encouraging, I'm so grateful. Chances are as it's quite a small town the home gp would be one she'd be registering with anyway. So many thanks to everyone 🙏 🙏

Just to add, hospital physio follow up isn't always awful, when another relative was discharged after a fracture they got 3 visits a week from the team organised by the hospital - they even came at weekends. And spent some time with them each visit, 'putting them through their paces' and advising what to try next etc. It was really helpful

So I really wouldn't want MiL to miss out on this by moving counties, if it's offered in her current location but it turned out she couldn't access it here

I work for a team that does a kind of post discharge rehab. Changing GPs is really common.