‘Political maladministration’ responsible for high incidence of unsafe discharge

Unacceptably high incidence of unsafe discharge from NHS hospitals is a result of ‘political maladministration’, according to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC).

A new PACAC report found that discharge failures identified by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman were not isolated incidents and recommends that more data should be gathered on the scale and impact of these discharge failures.

The PACAC suggests that interface between health and social care is a barrier to the implementation of best practice and describes the historical split, where health and social care means that interdependent services are being managed and funded separately, as ‘political maladministration’.

The report recommends: the Health Secretary establishes a clear set of objectives for the Discharge Programme Board, together with success measures and timelines; the government explains what is happening in parts of the country where funding for the Better Care Fund from the New Homes Bonus does not materialise; the government sets out a route map demonstrating how arrangements for long-term, sufficient, sustainable and integrated funding for adult social care will be implemented, by March 2017; and that the government sets out a clear plan for implementing integrated health and social care plans across the country, as pledged in the 2015 Spending Review.

Bernard Jenkin, chairman of the PACAC, said: "Hospital staff seem to feel pressured to discharge patients before it is safe to do so. Hospital leadership must reassure their staff that organisational pressures never take priority over person-centred care. And staff need to feel a level of trust and openness that enables them to raise concerns about unsafe discharge."