Can a hospital transfer your care temporarily to another hospital in the UK? Advice greatly needed for tomorrow morning..

[hattyyellow]

Just left hospital after a week of in patient care, with very painful ENT problems. They had wanted me to come back as an out patient every day next week. Trouble is, half term is just started, we've used up so many childcare favours and DH is booked to work down South all next week. My mum lives down there and is really happy to have me and our small children, as I'm just not in a state to look after them by myself.

My local hospital are umm-ing and err-ing about transferring my care to another out patient clinic at an NHS hospital at the other end of the country. They've told me to present myself at A&E and say I want to see a doctor. But that clearly could take hours and hours to see someone and get in the system down there.

They've let me home tonight and then I have my last appointment locally tomorrow before we travel south. I don't see why it's a problem to ring another ENT department - but I'd like to get my facts right/find out if there is a protocol for transferring care- before I see them in the morning..if they can just ring or fax and say please expect this patient it would make everything so much easier, and save me sitting for hours in pain at a new hospital..

Would be so grateful for any help. Pain has been high and sleep low all week, so could do with some back up..

Apologies for cross post.

Unfortunately they can't unless it's for very specific reasons which don't include convenience as they can't " commission" care.

The process is: they would discharge you from their care. A referral would be made to the place of your choice. Then you get to go as a planned patient.
The reason why they are saying to go through A&E ( although the receiving hospital won't be happy) is that is the only way to ensure you will be seen Monday ( or whenever) - and even then, it doesn't mean you will be seen every day/ follow the same care plan.

Is there no way your Mum can stay with you?

Thanks so much for your help. No she's not able to as she has commitments down south and we don't have any other family up here..I see, I had hoped they could just call and ask and then keep a record of the notes..thank you

Booksandblondish, have been googling NHS walk in centres - would they be a better bet in terms of waiting times? We don't have any near us up here so they are a new concept to me..

It is a new concept. I was amazed to hear a neighbour went to one on a Sunday 2 miles away . It is in the local Cottage Hospital.

Difficult to say - they are limited in what they can do ( mainly because they don't have medical records)

I'd start with them as strictly you aren't an emergency.

There's no protocol at all. The only thing would be if a consultant phoned another consultant but it's time consuming and in England I am not sure as there is all the business about commissioning care which we don't have in Scotland. (Thank the politicians for that)

You can't get outpatient ENT care at a walk-in centre. It's for urgent care so they might manage the pain but they can't really do a course of treatment.

The local ENT team will have a full roster of patients of their own; even if there was a way they could suddenly accept you on to the service it would be at the expense of one of the patients on their own waiting list.

Essentially your DH is not available for work next week. You need to prioritise getting better, which means he needs to prioritise looking after his children.

I agree with tribpot

Another ENT department will not have spare appointments.

What are they actually doing? Is it just a check up or are you having some treatment?

If you are determined to go to your mum's and your husband can't take time off then you need to register with her GP as a temporary resident. The GP can then attempt to get you an appointment at ENT.

Your best bet (which will be expensive) is to go to contact the nearest private hospital and pay for the care.

Or, depending on the treatment you can contact a nursing agency and have nurse come to you, again this will not be cheap.

I agree about presenting at a walk in centre. You can move your care but obviously it won't be a perfect continuous level of care. Not ideal and all that but I appreciate your reasons.

The consultants do transfer care when repatriating someone home but you are opting to go out of your own area which is different because of the funding mentioned previously

Thanks so much for this all. Ended up presenting at the new hospital A&E this morning and they were very kind and took me through to ENT within 10 minutes. Now on their books til we go home. DH would love to have helped, but we're both self-employed and last week with me not working and him cutting back massively to help, meant he really needed to work this week so one of us is paying the bills!

Receptionist at this A&E did say "I do think they could have phoned, it was obvious you would need to be seen quickly". But all's well that ends well, I thought I might be waiting for hours. Thanks so much all for your help.