Hospital discharge – everyone loses when its handled poorly

Dr Tom Nutt is Chief Executive of Healthwatch Essex and Dr Oonagh Corrigan led the hospital discharge research as Commissioning and Research Manager. Dr Alex Georgiadis is currently Acting Research and Commissioning Manager at Healthwatch Essex and co-authored the study. Healthwatch Essex tweets at @HWEssex

A major two-year research study undertaken by Healthwatch Essex into the experiences of patients discharged from three hospitals in the county has provided a comprehensive picture of this thorny issue. The report encourages local health and social care commissioners to overcome artificial boundaries and develop a unifying vision of care to provide high quality care.

The report, published at the end of last year, marks the organisation’s most ambitious project to date, involving almost 200 hours of observation and over 200 interviews with patients, staff, and family carers.