Discharging hospital patients to care homes at the start of the pandemic

My DD was a student medic on geriatric wards in Scotland when Covid broke out. Patients were discharged as fast as possible to free up beds for the sick patients pouring into A&E. In her particular hospital the patients who didn’t have Covid had to pass through the Covid patient ward to get to the non-covid bit. ?‍♀️ She had no PPE, and staff were falling like flies either with the virus or because they had to isolate.

It was hellish.

Sorry MissAdventure.

Yes Miss and without adequate PPE.

I understood that health and social care staff were largely left to get on with things, and had to look online for guidance as none was given directly to them.

I think if you check Full Fact you will see that it was indeed policy to discharge patients without necessarily testing them.

I don't know enough about this, but thought it would have to be a doctor's decision. What I do know is that during the worst times, the attitude towards older/ elderly people in general, made me wonder and ask where people's compassion was. I got the impression that elderly/ senior people were seen as a burden and I really was horrified and taken aback by the ' well, they've had their life attitude'. Does no one have senior folks that they care about anymore?

Good question, eliz27. I doubt anyone in government has the authority to interfere in hospital discharges. They certainly shouldn't have such authority.

Wasn’t it the doctors that were discharging patients back to care homes at the beginning?

If we ever get an enquiry I suspect that a lot of dubious decision making will come to light.