Unsafe hospital discharge Our response to a Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee inquiry

The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee carried out an inquiry to follow up a report from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, which highlighted harrowing cases of the human costs of poor discharge.  

We argued that unsafe discharge from hospital is a significant issue which has very serious consequences for the patients, carers and families concerned, as well as adding to the financial pressures affecting the NHS and social care.

We highlighted the support we have given frontline teams to improve the quality and expediency of discharge and other issues that can affect the effectiveness of discharge processes.

We argued that progress in this area depends on:

• spreading such improvements and innovations to have the greatest impact on the greatest number of patients
• fostering whole-system thinking and collaborations across entire health economies
• adopting a fundamentally new approach which conceives patient safety from the patient’s perspective.