Hospital discharge

Discharge to Assess (D2A)
Intermediate care
NHS complaints

Discharge to Assess (D2A)

When you are considered medically fit for discharge, you are likely to be visited by someone responsible for your discharge, often a nurse. To help understand what level of ongoing support you are likely to need they will use a process called ‘discharge to assess’ (D2A).

Put simply, D2A is about supporting people to leave hospital, when safe and appropriate to do so, and continuing their care and assessment out of hospital. It means that you can be assessed for your longer-term needs in the right place, such as in your own home, a care home, or occasionally a community-based NHS facility.

If you are being discharged back home, your discharge co-ordinator or case manager may also identify local organisations that provide ‘home from hospital’ services that can assist with tasks such as:

Shopping

Preparing meals

Collecting prescriptions

Putting the heating on

Transport

Wellness checks

You may also be able to contact these organisations directly to request their support. The following local charities may provide home from hospital services:

Local Age UK

Royal Voluntary Service

British Red Cross

If you need long-term care following discharge from hospital, this should be identified as part of your care assessment, which you can read more.
Intermediate care

If the outcome of the discharge to assess process is that you need temporary care to help you get back on your feet, then you may be eligible for some funding to help cover this cost.

Intermediate care provides funding for up to six weeks through either the NHS, the local authority or a combination of both. This can be for care and support services, whether at home or in a care home.

You might be eligible for intermediate care if the funding could help achieve one or more of the following:

support timely discharge from hospital and help you be as independent as possible, or

maximise your potential for further recovery and prevent you moving into permanent residential care before you really need to, or

maximise your potential for further recovery before considering your eligibility for NHS CHC, or

help you avoid going into hospital unnecessarily.
NHS complaints

Should you need to raise a complaint regarding your time in hospital or the hospital discharge process, in the first instance you may wish to speak to the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) who are likely to be based in the hospital. You can search for their details, here.

You can ask PALS to intervene on your behalf and try to resolve the issue informally and prevent it escalating to a formal complaint. If this is unsuccessful then PALS will advise you on the formal complaints procedure.

You must generally raise a formal complaint within 12 months of an event occurring, or within 12 months of the date you were first made aware of the issue.

If your complaint is not adequately resolved through either PALS or the formal complaints procedure, then you can escalate your complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO).

Benefits in hospital

If you receive Attendance Allowance (AA), Disability Living Allowance (DLA) or Personal Independence Payment (PIP) you should contact the Disability Service Centre at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) when you first go into hospital and once you have been discharged.

You can continue to receive these benefits if your stay in hospital is less than 28 days. If you have more than one hospital visit with less than 28 days of separation, then the length of each hospital visit will be combined.

If your stay in hospital extends beyond 28 days then your AA, DLA or PIP may be suspended until you are discharged, at which point it may restart.

If you are unsure how any benefits you receive might be affected by a stay in hospital, you should contact the (DWP) to seek clarification.

Finding care

Whether you need some help at home or want to find out more about Care Homes in your area, we have information on where to search and what questions to ask.

Finding care

Care needs assessment

Your local authority could help you to get the right support in place, whether you’re in need of care yourself or looking after someone else.

Local authority assessments

Complaints about care

Getting help if things go wrong.

Complaints about care

Hospital discharge

Discharge to Assess (D2A)

Intermediate care

NHS complaints

Finding care

Care needs assessment

Complaints about care