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Hospital admissions and discharge protocol
The Health Inclusion Project in partnership with the Homelessness Group of the London Network for Nurses, the Department of Local Government and Communities and Department of Health have produced joint guidelines to support hospitals draw up their own protocols for the admission and discharge of people who are homeless. Areas where work is underway include UCLH, West Sussex, Leicester, Newcastle, Liverpool and Eastbourne.
Guidelines
Local provision will be very different in each area - the important thing is to put a protocol in place that both identifies and surmounts the local barriers to safe discharge for this client group.
In order to safe and timely discharges we would encourage health agencies, the local authority, and homelessness agencies all to be positively engaged, each respecting the skills and understanding of the other in the development of a local protocol. We recommend that the protocol is a joint agreement between the hospital, social services, housing departments, community-based health services and homelessness agencies.
Fact sheets
Additionally we have produced four supporting factsheets to provide more information and guidance to the guidelines on the following areas:
Case Study: Newcastle's Hospital Admission and Discharge Protocol
Newcastle is one of the areas that has implemented a Hospital Admission and Discharge Protocol to increase the chances of every patient being discharged to an appropriate home with appropriate support in place.
The protocol was developed with the Housing Advice Centre, Social Services, Advice and Support Workers, Newcastle Hospital Trust, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear Mental Health Trust and Newcastle Primary Care Trust.
Acknowledgements
In autumn 2003 the London Network for Nurses and Midwives, and Homeless Link organised, in conjunction with the then Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, a day seminar on the discharge of people who are homeless from hospitals. Material from the seminar workshops held on that day is incorporated into this guidance.
This guidance and the four background Fact Sheets were co-ordinated by Pip Bevan, of Homeless Link's Health Inclusion Project, which is funded by the Department of Health, and we would especially like to thank those who formed part of the core editorial group:
- Natalie Warman - Project Manager of The London Network for Nurses and Midwives.
- Jane Cook - Nurse Advisor, the Hope Project, Hillingdon PCT
- Marc Thurgood - specialist practitioner in community mental health nursing (START Team, SLAM NHS Trust) and lecturer practitioner at the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, Kings College, London
- Hazel Kidner - Lambeth PCT
Our thanks are also due to the Department for Communities and Local Government, the Department of Health and the Health Inclusion Project Advisory Group for supporting, guiding and publishing the guidelines.