6000 patients discharged at night

6000 patients were discharged at night between April 2010 and March 2011 from the four hospitals in the Pennine Acute Hospital Trust (Rochdale Infirmary, Fairfield Hospital, Oldham Royal Infirmary and North Manchester General). Of the night time discharges, 1,800 were children.

Dr Sally Bradley, Medical Director of Pennine Acute Hospital Trust said: “A recent review of discharge times has shown that of the 215,000 inpatients treated in our hospitals in 2010/11, less than three percent were discharged overnight. We do not normally discharge patients overnight unless there is a good reason, for example if there are relatives or carers available at home.

“Four out of five patients discharged overnight are from our medical and emergency assessment units or from our children’s units. Patients are admitted to our assessment units to have a number of tests carried out over a short period of time, to decide whether further treatment is necessary. If no further treatment is needed then patients are often eager to go home even if it is quite late.

“Modern medicine also means that the vast majority of children stay less than six hours in hospital while various tests and treatments are carried out. Very few children need an overnight admission. As the vast majority of children arrive at hospital in the early evening we find that parents are particularly keen to take their children home as soon as they can even if that is quite late.

“While we do not plan to discharge patients late at night, we know that for a very small number of patients (less than half of one percent) arrangements can get delayed. I would be keen to hear from any patients or relatives who have been discharged late at night so that we can learn lessons for the future. Anyone who would like to share their experience can contact our PALS Team on 0161 604 5897 or pals@pat.nhs.uk.”

The Times newspaper discovered, via Freedom of Information requests, that 100 NHS trusts sent 239,233 patients home last year between 23:00 and 06:00.

NHS medical director Prof Sir Bruce Keogh said people should be sent home only when it was appropriate and safe.

Sir Bruce said: "I am concerned to hear that some patients may be being discharged unnecessarily late.

"Patients should only be discharged when it's clinically appropriate, safe and convenient for them and their families.

"It is simply not fair to be sending people home late at night. We will look at this."

Dr Mark Porter, of the British Medical Association, said the figures illustrated the "enormous pressure" the health service was under.

The Patients Association reported that it had received regular calls from people who had been sent home from hospital without any warning late at night.

The organisation's chief executive Katherine Murphy said the situation was unacceptable, the Times reported.