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The Health Secretary has announced that hospitals will suffer financial penalties if patients are readmitted as emergencies within thirty days of being discharged. They are also now required to look after patients’ health and well-being for up to a month after their discharge.
It seems that hospitals are currently paid for each admission, including readmissions. The new plan is supposed to ensure that patients are not prematurely discharged in order to free up beds.
This seems all well and good on paper but it seems to me that much depends upon a doctor’s opinion as to whether or not a patient is ready to be discharged. In that respect, nothing has changed.
The question is: Who is competent to decide whether or not a patient that has been readmitted within thirty days was not fit to be discharged in the first place?
.
The Health Secretary has announced that hospitals will suffer financial penalties if patients are readmitted as emergencies within thirty days of being discharged. They are also now required to look after patients’ health and well-being for up to a month after their discharge.
It seems that hospitals are currently paid for each admission, including readmissions. The new plan is supposed to ensure that patients are not prematurely discharged in order to free up beds.
This seems all well and good on paper but it seems to me that much depends upon a doctor’s opinion as to whether or not a patient is ready to be discharged. In that respect, nothing has changed.
The question is: Who is competent to decide whether or not a patient that has been readmitted within thirty days was not fit to be discharged in the first place?
.
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