Before discharge: what should happen
The hospital should carry out an assessment of what your relative will need at home and agree a discharge plan with you. If you believe the plan is unsafe, say so clearly and ask for it to be recorded. Families are often made to feel obstructive for doing this; you are not being obstructive, you are being sensible.
Ask specifically whether your relative is eligible for reablement or intermediate care. This is short-term support, often free for up to six weeks, aimed at helping someone regain independence after illness. It is routinely under-offered, and it is worth asking about by name.
If needs are substantial, ask whether an NHS Continuing Healthcare checklist has been completed. It is a screening tool, and completing it costs nothing.
Arranging care at short notice
Private care can usually be arranged within a few days, sometimes faster. What slows things down is not availability but decisions: who will visit, when, and what they will do.
For the first fortnight, plan for more support than seems necessary. Readmission risk is highest immediately after discharge, and it is far easier to reduce visits than to arrange extra ones in a crisis. Mornings tend to matter most — getting up, washed, dressed and fed is when people struggle first.
Get the practical things in place before the day itself: food in the house, heating on, a bed downstairs if stairs are now difficult, and any equipment the ward has recommended.
The medication trap
Discharge medication frequently differs from what someone was taking before, and old boxes remain in the cupboard. Confusion between the two is one of the most common causes of readmission.
Go through the discharge letter against everything in the house, and remove what has been stopped. Ask the pharmacy about a blister pack if managing several medicines is difficult. Note that a helper introduced through an introductory agency can prompt and remind, but anything beyond prompting is something to agree directly with them, and to be honest with them about.
If you think the discharge is unsafe
Ask to speak to the ward’s discharge coordinator, and if that does not resolve it, contact the hospital’s Patient Advice and Liaison Service. Put your concern in writing, even briefly, because a written record changes how these conversations proceed.
You cannot be compelled to collect someone, and a hospital cannot discharge a person to an unsafe situation simply because a bed is needed.