One year on - positive impact of innovative hospital discharge programme revealed

A programme that supports people in Oxfordshire to leave hospital more quickly to continue their recovery at home, has shown significant benefits for residents since its roll out last year.

Discharge to Assess is a system partnership programme, involving staff from Oxfordshire County Council, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and Age UK Oxfordshire, working together to identify the best way of supporting a patient to leave hospital safely and quickly.

The latest figures demonstrate it has enabled 23 per cent more people to leave hospital compared to last year. In October, this amounted to 657 people going home from hospital through Discharge to Assess.

Karen Fuller, Oxfordshire County Council’s Director of Adult Social Care, said:

“While it’s great to see the impact of Discharge to Assess on hospital flow, the real success is being seen in people’s homes.

“By supporting people back into a familiar environment, with all their home comforts, we can take a far more informed approach to the goals that someone wants to achieve. This enables more people than ever before to regain the levels of independence they had before going into hospital.

“It’s incredibly rewarding to see the difference the programme is making to people’s lives.”

People’s experiences of leaving hospital in Oxfordshire

Discharge to Assess forms part of the recently published Healthwatch Oxfordshire report, ‘People’s experiences of leaving hospital in Oxfordshire’, which praises the effective way that health and care professionals are working together to help more people to return home with the support they need.

• The report identifies that many people had a positive experience of leaving hospital, and that the majority of people felt safe and happy to be home.
• The document also includes some recommendations, including improvements around the continuity and quality of care experienced by patients, clearer communications for patients and carers, and better support and identification of unpaid carers.
• The report goes on to recommend the continued close working relationship between health and social care partners to further improve the hospital discharge process.
• The programme is based on national guidance and came into effect in November last year. It brings together experts in health and social care in Transfer of Care Hub meetings, which take place three times a day.
• The team considers a plan for a patient to leave hospital, as well as any homecare support they might require, before they are well enough to go home, speeding up the discharge process.
• By working with the person and their family, plans are then put in place to support them to leave hospital and return home as quickly as possible.

An executive summary of the Healthwatch Oxfordshire report, including responses from health and social care partners, can be found on the Healthwatch Oxfordshire website.