Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Patient Discharge Unit

Overall, the Patient Discharge Unit (PDU) is a well-run operation with helpful and readily-accessible staff, working calmly in a very clean and tidy environment.

The PDU plays an important role in affecting the reputation of the hospital because discharge represents, for most patients, the final contact with the hospital and strongly influences a patient's lasting impression.

In addition, because patients are understandably very eager to go home, there can be heightened sensitivity and emotion surrounding the discharge process. Of the six patients interviewed, four were frustrated by quite significant delays in their discharge, three of them caused by problems with the provision of medication.

This is a challenge for the Unit because while not necessarily responsible for the delays, they do take a role in supporting patients to seek resolutions to the various problems that lead to delayed discharge, and in reassuring the patients involved.

The four affected patients were naturally unhappy at the delays and were frustrated and bewildered by the uncertainty surrounding the resolution process. They felt uninformed about the reasons for the delays as well as the likely timeframe to fix the issue.