Selaine Saxby, MP for North Devon, visited the new discharge lounge under construction, built thanks to £2m of Government funding announced in January as part of a national package to support hospital discharge. In honour of King Charles III, the facility will be called the Coronation Suite.
To help increase bed capacity and the flow of patients across our hospital, the Royal Devon University Healthcare Trust created a temporary discharge lounge at NDDH in March 2022. They are now creating a permanent, purpose built space on site that will have space for up to 20 patients who no longer need to be on a ward and are waiting to go home. It will provide a comfortable space for patients to finalise their discharge, including collecting medications, checking discharge paperwork and contacting next of kin, all supported by their dedicated nursing team.
The discharge lounge allows the hospital to ensure the early availability of inpatient beds each day, which helps us to improve the efficiency and flow across hospital, in both emergency and planned care. This supports us to meet a key recommendation in NHS Improvement’s ‘SAFER’ patient flow bundle which requires 33% of patients be discharged from inpatient wards before midday.
Selaine Saxby MP said:
“There are some exciting long term plans for our hospital and our health service over the coming years, but it is great to see first hand the investment that is being made right now, to address the persistent delayed discharges that often create delays in admissions into hospitals, especially in winter.
The new Coronation Suite adds to last year’s £3 million Jubilee Ward which is already helping to reduce the backlog of elective orthopaedic surgeries, and also last year, the introduction of the new IT system, ACT, which will streamline all of our hospitals operations and interactions.”
Jason Lugg, Director of Nursing (Northern services) for the Royal Devon, said:
“We are delighted to be permanently opening this fantastic new facility for our patients.
“The lounge is helping us to give patients a more positive experience when leaving our hospital and frees up beds in hospital for those who need them the most.”
Minister of State for Care, Helen Whately MP said, when the fund was first announced in November:
“People should be cared for in the best place for them, but discharge delays mean patients are spending too long in hospital.
Our discharge fund will get more people cared for in the right place at the right time. We’re asking hospitals and the social care system to work together to help patients and carers too, who often take on a lot of the burden of caring when someone leaves hospital.
The discharge fund will boost the social care workforce and in turn reduce pressures on the NHS and hospital staff, as it frees up beds and helps improve ambulance handover delays.”
