Could hospital discharge be better? Share your experience
When it came time to leave, was the right support in place?
Could you leave when you were meant to?
Or did you have to stay in the hospital for longer than was necessary?
We want to hear from you!
Leaving the hospital is an important milestone in a person’s healthcare journey. But leaving the hospital isn’t always a smooth experience.
Delays, inadequate support packages and confusing information are affecting people’s discharge experiences – and hampering their recovery.
Being discharged means leaving the hospital ward where you were being treated. This may include returning home, moving to a care home, to a community hospital bed, or somewhere else to continue your recovery.
If patients are discharged too early without proper support, they may need to be readmitted to hospital or seek help from GPs or pharmacies.
Meanwhile, delays in discharging medically fit people create issues for new patients needing beds, leading to longer wait times in A&E and treatment in corridors until beds are available.
In May 2026 across County Durham 1,825 people experienced hospital discharge delays of one or more days.
We want to drill down into this issue – identifying where and how the hospital discharge process can be made better for patients and their carers.
So, Healthwatch County Durham are working with a small group of other Healthwatch teams across England to collect people’s experiences of hospital discharge in the past year.
Take our survey to share your story.
It is open to everyone, and we especially want to hear from men as this is a key focus of the survey, but women are also welcome to take part.
Click the link above or copy the following into your internet browser: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/Countydurham/