Page contents
- Getting ready to go into hospital
- Emergency admissions
- Caring for someone else
- During your stay
- Getting ready to go home
- Leaving hospital
- Arranging your own care
- Money and benefits
- If something goes wrong
Getting ready to go into hospital
If you know you're going into hospital, the NHS has some useful advice:
You can also look at from Age UK.
If you need help getting to your appointment, find out about:
Emergency admissions
You could prepare for an emergency with the scheme. This gives you stickers that will let people know if you have allergies or take medicine.
In an emergency we must consider if we need to make arrangements for you to:
- make sure your property is secure
- check if someone can take care of your pets. If you don't have family or friends that can help we will arrange a cattery, kennel or similar
You may have to pay for us to make these arrangements.
Caring for someone else
If you look after someone else, do you have plans for them if you need to go into hospital? The carer's emergency plan can help you prepare.
Action for Carers has at:
- East ÖйúPÕ¾
- Epsom and St. Heliers
- The Royal ÖйúPÕ¾
- Ashford and St. Peter's
They offer advice and support and make sure that you're involved in all conversations.
Ask hospital staff about extra help to carers through a . This may help you get:
- cheaper parking
- longer visiting hours
- continue to care for your loved one
A can tell you if you can get help to support you. If you need more support ask for a review. See looking after family or friends.
If the person you care for has dementia, ask your hospital team about the .
See also our Carers' hospital discharge guide.
During your stay
Our social care staff work together with hospital staff and community health providers. They will give you advice about getting ready to leave hospital when you are medically fit. The hospital staff will arrange any care and support needs before discharge.
Getting ready to go home
You can find advice about or on from AgeUK ÖйúPÕ¾. You can also find out more advice about your discharge on the individual hospital websites:
at the hospital you are in will be able to give you a copy of their discharge policy.
Leaving hospital
When you're ready to leave, our teams will work with you to make sure you can do this safely. They will look to see if:
- you can go straight home
- you can go home with some support
- you need to go into community-based care or temporary residential or nursing care
- you need to go into long-term residential or nursing care
You can find out more about what will happen at .
Go home with social care support
Once your medical treatment is over, your care team should make arrangements for you to leave hospital. Staying in hospital for longer than necessary can put you at risk of losing some of your strength, mobility and getting an infection.
We will help you get home or in a temporary care home first while you continue your recovery, then work with you to set up relevant care and support to meet your needs and help you stay independent. This is called discharge to assess (D2A). During this period, health and social care will work together to support you following your discharge and we will make arrangements for you to be cared for.
If you can get support from us, our teams will talk to you about this. You do not need to pay anything towards your care and support until we have completed a full assessment of your care needs.
Going into residential or nursing care
If you have ongoing and more complex needs that cannot be managed at home you may need support in a residential or nursing care home. You may need to pay towards longer term care.
See:
Arranging your own care
If you can't get support from us, there's lots of support in local areas provided by a range of different organisations.
is for people in Elmbridge, Runnymede, Spelthorne, Woking or ÖйúPÕ¾ Heath areas.
It offers immediate support for 6 weeks. You may have to pay for this. Examples include:
- fitting key safes
- meals at home
- community alarms
- social prescribing service
The is for people in the ÖйúPÕ¾ Downs area.
It offers support for 6 weeks. You may have to pay for this.
Examples include:
- Lifeline alarm
- telephone welfare calls
- referrals to different services and social activities
For help with everyday tasks find out about:
- services that can help with
- help from your local district or borough council
- meals on wheels or meals at home
- support taking your medication
- personal care for example bathing and showers, dressing
- help with shopping and cooking
- wheelchair or walking aid loans
- help
Making changes to your home could help keep you safe, well and independent. Find out about:
- adapting your home
- ÖйúPÕ¾ Connected Care – includes motion sensors, apps, falls detectors and alarm pendants
- Home Equipment Finder online catalogue for suggestions on how you can live safe and well. Items include:
Money and benefits
If you get benefits, you must tell:
- Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
- the council office that deals with your Housing and Council Tax Benefit claims
about your hospital stay. They will check to see if you they need to make any changes to your benefits.
If you didn't have any benefits before you went into hospital, you may be able to claim now. Get advice on from Citizens Advice.
For help with travel costs see:
If something goes wrong
If you're not happy with:
- your stay
- how you left hospital
speak with your hospital team. You can get help to do this from .
You can give feedback about us or provide via Healthwatch ÖйúPÕ¾.