What happens while you are in hospital
The ward staff will support you to recover during your hospital stay. While in hospital it is important you think about the next steps for your recovery and what care or support you might need. You might want to think about areas of your daily routine you can manage independently and those you need help with, and how you might meet these needs when you are discharged.
What happens next
During your admission, the ward staff and discharge liaison team will come and speak with you to understand what support you already have at home. They will ask you for information to understand if you need to spend some time in a Community Hospital or a care home before going home or if you can go straight home with either some home care and reablement support or with help from family and friends. They will need to ask you quite a few questions so you may want someone with you to help.
Support that is available to you
During your stay in hospital, you need to start thinking about how your care and support needs will be met when you leave. Starting to think about this early helps you keep your independence and helps meet the outcomes that are important to you. Thinking about this early can also help you leave hospital sooner.
Depending on your care and support needs, there are many different services to ensure the outcomes that are important to you are met when you leave hospital.
Examples of support you might be able to access, subject to assessment, include:
- Information, advice and guidance: You might like to know more about benefits, accessing social support, or equipment to help you to return home.
- Ongoing rehabilitation
- Informal support: You may want to discuss whether your family, friends, or voluntary agencies can support you in any way
- Reablement: This is short term support to assist you in re-establishing your daily routine at home
- Period of assessment in a care home: This would be to help you recover more and assess what ongoing support you might need
- Long-term care in a care home
- Care at home: This is when a homecare agency visits you on an agreed schedule on a long-term basis
Paying for ongoing care
Depending on what type of care you need longer term, you may need to contribute towards the cost of it. Our Care Finance team will work with you to understand your financial position and work out how much your assessed weekly care charge towards the cost of your care and support will be.
They will also be able to assist and signpost you to support you to find out if you are eligible for any benefits. We can give you written information about paying for care and support and how your assessed weekly care charge is calculated and will be able to answer any queries you have. You may wish to seek independent financial advice to ensure you make the right decisions for you.
If you have over £23,250 in savings, you will need to pay the full cost of your care. This is the national threshold set by the UK Government and is reviewed each year.
If you have over this amount of money in savings and assets, you will need to find your own care and set this up directly with a care home or care agency. We can help you do this by giving you a list of care homes and agencies, who you can contact yourself.
What happens if you don't agree the options given to you for your care
We are in unusual times and care is not readily available in the community or in care homes. However, we will always put your safety and wellbeing first. Sometimes it may be hard to find care for when you get home, so you may have to spend some time in a community hospital or care home to help you progress with your recovery before you are able to go home. You may be able to change your care plan later if it’s not right for you.
Sorting out any medication for when you leave hospital
The hospital will discharge you with 4 to 6 weeks medication depending on what you need. They will also send information to your doctor about the medication you need. If you are going to a Community Hospital or care home this information will go to their medical teams as well.
Providing equipment you may need
The appropriate therapy team will make an assessment prior to going home or when you arrive at the community hospital to see what equipment might help you now or in the future.
More information
You can find out more about Care Act Assessments and Support Planning on our web page.
You can also find community services to help support your care needs on our LiveWell directory.
If you do not have access to the internet, please call our Community Wellbeing hub on 0300 247 00 50. They can provide you with the necessary information, advice and guidance.