"Lack of consideration"

Last Saturday my mum was taken to A&E after having a fall and breaking a her wrist. From A&E she was transferred to the Emergency Frailty Unit and subsequently to Ward 21 from where she was discharged a few days later.

I cannot fault the care she was shown.

However, the discharge process left me dismayed.When my father and I visited her on Ward 21 we were told that she could be discharged that very evening. I was surprised as I had anticipated an assessment of her fitness to be sent home given that my elderly father has Alzheimer's and my mum would find it difficult to look after both of them with a broken wrist. I had not expected my mum to be sent home without some sort of care package in place.

It took a while for the medication to come through from pharmacy and for the discharge process to be completed. Around 10.00pm we were good to go. I asked the nurse if there were wheelchairs I could use  as both my parents are old and frail and not very mobile. I was told I could go and find one, when I asked where I was told to just pick up an abandoned chair from  nearby. In the vicinity of Ward 21 I was not able to locate any wheelchairs. We decided to set of as best as we could. I had a parent on each side if me, my father with his two walking sticks and having to stop to catch his breath, my mum struggling to walk without her walking frame. I was laden down with my mum's medication and everything that goes with a hospital stay for a few days.

On our, slow, journey we met an ambulance crew man wheeling a patient to the ward, he also saw us. When he had settled his patient on the ward this kind crewman came back to us with his chair and offered the chair and his help to get us to the car in the car park. My dilemma was  deciding which parent to put in the chair!

I know people don't want to be in hospital any longer than they have to, that beds are a premium and that people want their loved ones back at home. However, could things be done differently? Firstly, do elderly, frail people need to be discharged so late? Secondly could there not be a provision of porter assistance when there are elderly, frail people - particularly with mobility issues - to be taken, even if it's to the entrance? The LRI is a large hospital. Thirdly, if there had been some prior warning that my mum would be discharged I could have made arrangements for extra help and support to be with me,