Premature discharge: is going home early really a Christmas gift? In the past week or so we’ve seen headlines about record delayed discharges from English hospitals and the Nuffield Trust’s considered assessment that many of the NHS’s problems last winter were caused by unsustainably high bed occupancy. We know that avoidable delays cause problems for the system, and more importantly, for patients.
However, the debate on discharge is in danger of focusing solely on delays. That’s partly because they are so obviously important, but also because delays are the most often reported-on national statistics. But what about the other side of the coin – premature discharge, or people leaving hospital too early? The King's Fund
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