Bournemouth Hospital bed blockers 'face legal action'

[Northerner]

A hospital is to give so-called "bed blockers" seven days to leave or face possible legal action, saying too many families are refusing to take elderly relatives home when they are fit to go.

On Wednesday, 70 patients at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital were medically fit to leave but were still on wards.

Nearly half had somewhere safe to go - either to a family home or care home.

The hospital said some families were giving spurious reasons for not taking their loved ones back.

Katie Whiteside, clinical manager for discharge services, said one family asked the hospital to "keep hold" of a relative while they took a two-week holiday in Turkey.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-30116338

 

[trophywench]

Well hang on - you book your holiday whenever - do they hospital expect you fly back or cancel it cos they have decided grandma (who lived on her own prior to admission) is ready to come home now?

I've said before on here - they only gave us about 2 days to find mum a carehome place - we didn't even know at that point that you have to find that place yourself - we assumed 'they' would be able to say 'these are the local places that can take your mother' and then we'd choose.

Neither of our employers knew beforehand that we'd need time off to go and do the visits, have the discussions with the managers etc - you can't just walk away from work at the drop of someone else's hat and expect to remain employed. Still - not their problem .......