Scandal of patients sent home too early
This depressing story chimes with stories I have heard about how this sort of thing in a rural setting has led to early deaths. It tells us:
The misery endured by patients because of the NHS’s “revolving door” policy of early discharge and emergency re-admission is exposed for the first time today in a scathing report.
One million NHS patients are re-admitted to hospital as emergency cases within 30 days of discharge because they are being “rushed out of the door” too quickly, at a cost of £2.4 billion per year.
Healthwatch England said it had gathered “thousands of shocking stories” about patients being sent home without the right care and support. They included a mentally ill man discharged after a suicide attempt with no follow-up care who killed himself a week later.
The NHS’s official watchdog concluded that “an undercurrent of ageism” persists within the NHS, and that some of the most vulnerable people in society – pensioners, the homeless and the mentally ill – are being badly let down.