NHS: Unsafe Hospital Discharges

Debate between Lord Prior of Brampton and Baroness Butler-Sloss

Wednesday 15th June 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

The noble Baroness is right. Most well-run hospitals will have integrated discharge teams comprising people who work in the community, social care workers and people who work in the hospital. However, the fact is that over the last 20 years, with the benefit of hindsight, too much resource has gone into acute hospitals and not enough into primary care and community care. You cannot wish into being lots of district nurses overnight. There are some parts of the country—I will pick on Northumbria and Salford, for example—where serious integration is now going on, with hospitals also managing adult social care, GPs and community care.

[Baroness Butler-Sloss (CB)]

May I pick the Minister up on one point? He said that there were one or two examples, but my understanding is that this is right across the country.

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

The noble and learned Baroness is right, up to a point. I said one or two because the PSHO report focuses on nine individual cases. In so far as they are representative of behaviour across the country, they are important, but I want to put on record that the vast majority of hospitals the vast majority of the time are getting their discharge procedures right and are doing an outstanding job.