Over 65s Hosiptal Discharge Public Meeting Report - February 2016

On 2 February 2016, Healthwatch Croydon published Experiences of discharge from Croydon University Hospital by patients aged 65 years and over. The report, commissioned by Healthwatch Croydon and undertaken by Age UK Croydon presented some good news with four in five patients not delayed at all and of those that were, most only experiencing a short delay of around an hour. However, most patients were more concerned about a lack of knowledge about the whole process, lack of time to discuss issues with doctors, and lack of communications between pharmacy, GP and social care services.

To launch the report, we planned a public meeting on 9 February at Age UK Croydon’s Scratchley Hall to gain further insight on these issues.

In this report, we present some recommendations based on the experience of 40 people that attended which included former discharge patients, carers, residents, service providers, which further support the research report.

We note that members of the Croydon Health Services NHS Trust and Croydon Clinical Commissioning Group also attended the event and thank them for their contribution. The trust in particular made some announcements and comments which we had included.