"Best of care in the ward, but discharge diabolical"

My wife was discharged following her thyroidectomy from Bolton Royal.

She was taken from ward F4 to the Discharge Room where she had to wait five hours to finally be discharged. Some older people had been in there for nine hours and were still awaiting discharge and transport when we left.

The two nurses were trying there best but ended up 'running around like headless chickens' and were achieving very little when I arrived. They hadn't had any lunch and were not getting scripts from the ward so they could print off letters and get medications for their patients, they said.

I observed what was going on and had to step in to help them get the script and medications for my wife - I went up to the ward, explained that the staff were still awaiting the script for her. The doctor said they had signed the script over an hour ago and it was on the system to be seen and printed by the nurses.

I return to tell them this and things started to happen. My wife should have had her medication in the morning due to low calcium levels and it was mid afternoon before she got it.

She had the best of care on admission and in the ward but the discharge was diabolical. I rang trying to get information and when I eventually got through I was passed to the Discharge Lounge Staff who said they would ring me as soon as she was ready to come home and that I couldn't come and wait with her. Two hours later I still hadn't had a call and couldn't get through on the phone so I decided to go down myself and walked straight into the ward/room. What we experienced was utter chaos which needed managing.

Eventually a Matron arrived who appeared to get things moving and he spoke to us. Two Admin Staff/Managers also came down but by then the problems were easing and they didn't appear to achieve anything.

From my day job it was obvious to me that had this system been managed discharge would have been much improved instead of chaos. The system is broken - it doesn't need money throwing at it - just organisation and better links to transport - many of those waiting had relatives with them and their own transport, some could have gone home in taxis and the elderly via ambulance (which I can understand takes time).

Its so easy to put it right. The clinical process was excellent.