Can i leave hospital

Discharge planning starts early in your admission process to ensure the return to your home environment is well organised. Your Estimated Day of Discharge EDD will be provided to you and your family on your admission, to enable plans for transport home to be organised around this date. Any changes to your EDD will be discussed with you at the bedside handover and displayed on the Patient Board on the wall beside your bed.

Usually you will be discharged and able to leave the hospital by 10am, so plan to have your transport home organised for a 10am discharge. Please remember to collect your belongings, including any private x-rays and medications that you brought into hospital.

Home care can be organised for patients who have been clinically assessed to need help after discharge. Please discuss any concerns you may have with the staff looking after you. Also, please be aware of any follow-up appointments you need to make, or that have been made for you. Except in certain circumstances e. However, this may be a serious step when taken against the advice of your doctor and requires great caution. Should you decide to leave against the advice of your doctor, you will be asked to sign a form disclaiming the hospital's responsibility for your action.

Find out when you may need a fit note. If you want to complain about how a hospital discharge was handled, speak to the staff involved to see if the problem can be resolved informally. Alternatively, speak to a PALS member at the hospital. PALS offers confidential advice, support and information on health-related matters. Find your local PALS. Your local council will be able to tell you who the local advocacy provider is.

If you wish to raise a formal complaint, follow the NHS complaints procedure. You can also rate or review a hospital.

Simply find the hospital you wish to comment on and leave an overall star rating or post a review for other patients to read. Page last reviewed: 18 February Next review due: 18 February Being discharged from hospital. A discharge assessment will determine whether you need more care after you leave hospital.

If you may be eligible for NHS continuing healthcare , staff must follow the process described in the National Framework for NHS continuing healthcare. If you are found to be eligible, the care you need will be arranged and funded by the NHS. If you are eligible for support, staff work with you to decide how best to meet your needs. Your local authority will help you arrange services either in your own home or a care home.

The local authority must check the support is still right for you within a reasonable time frame. After this, your care plan should be reviewed at least once a year, or more often if needed.

If you received posthospital support in a residential setting, are eligible for local authority help and able to go back home, staff will make sure support services are ready to start before you leave.

If you only need help with domestic tasks for a few weeks while you recover, hospital staff may be able to organise this or suggest local organisations that can help. These services may help to get your home ready for your return and assist with non-medical tasks such as shopping and light housework.

Back to top. Postcode Please enter a valid postcode Submit. Before you decide to leave, though, there are people on staff at the hospital who can help you with these concerns. A patient advocate , patient representative, or ombudsman can meet with you to review your bill. They can also discuss ways to get help with the costs or pay your bill in installments.

In many cases, your bill can be reduced if you are uninsured. Proof of low income may further reduce costs. If you have proof of extreme financial distress, you can request a reduction of your bill.

In some cases you may even be able to ask for forgiveness. Sometimes people choose to leave the hospital because they feel they are receiving poor care.

They may also disagree about what type of care they should get. Sometimes they may feel that hospital errors have put their health at risk. If this describes your experience, do not leave without first lodging an official complaint. You can bring your concerns to the attention of hospital administration or speak to a hospital social worker. For legal reasons, hospitals take serious reportable events SREs seriously.

They usually take swift action to correct the error or find a solution. They may even transfer you to another hospital.

Until the problem is resolved and you are happy with the outcome, don't sign anything that absolves the hospital of liability for the SRE. Make sure you have a patient advocate to help you negotiate. If the hospital's solution will increase your medical costs, insist that the hospital cover those costs. If your complaint is valid, they will almost certainly agree.

Don't leave the hospital without first discussing your complaints with your healthcare providers and hospital administration. Always use a patient advocate to help make sure your concerns are addressed. Some patients may leave simply because they do not like hospitals. They may have had a bad experience in the past. They may also have fears about antibiotic-resistant infections like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus MRSA.

If these are your concerns, speak with your healthcare providers. Keep an open mind when discussing your concerns. Try to stay objective. Weigh the costs and benefits of leaving with the costs and benefits of staying. If you are in poor health, you may not be able to make an informed decision on your own. In this case, find a family member, a trusted friend, or a private patient advocate to advocate on your behalf.

Contact the National Patient Advocate Foundation at for help with professional referrals. If you are considering leaving the hospital AMA, there are a few things you should be aware of:. You are legally allowed to leave if you want to. Before you go, make sure you know your rights.