FYI: information taken from:
http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/nireland/healthcare_ni/healthcare_nhs_healthcare_e/nhs_patients_rights.htm#DischargefromhospitalEnglandWalesandScot
Discharge from hospital
In England, you should not be discharged from hospital until your care needs are assessed and arrangements made to ensure that you will receive any necessary services when you are discharged.
Any assessment should take into account your wishes, the wishes of your family and of any carer. You should be kept fully informed and involved, be given sufficient time to make decisions, and be told how to seek a review of any decisions made. You can ask for a reassessment of your needs if circumstances change in the future.
Unsatisfactory arrangements before or after discharge
You may not be satisfied with arrangements for your discharge from hospital because, for example:
you feel that you need to remain in hospital for further in-patient treatment
you are not satisfied with the community care services that have been arranged for you when you are to leave hospital
you do not want to be sent to a care home.
Before discharge takes place, you, or your family, carer or representative, have the right to ask for a review of the decision which has been made about your eligibility for continuing NHS care. In England, you can also ask for a review after discharge.
If you are not satisfied with arrangements that have been made for you after you have been discharged, you can complain. If you are not satisfied with any medical services you are receiving from the NHS, you should use the NHS complaints procedure. If you are not satisfied with community care services which have been arranged or provided by the local authority, you should complain to the local authority using its complaints procedure.
If you are unhappy with your discharge from hospital or with the arrangements made for you after discharge, you should consult an experienced adviser, for example, at a Citizens Advice Bureau. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by email, click on nearest CAB.
For information on making a complaint in England, see NHS and local authority social services complaints. In Northern Ireland, see HSC complaints in Northern Ireland.
