Investigations into unsafe discharge from hospital follow-up

• Inquiry: Follow-up to PHSO report on unsafe discharge from hospital
• Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee

PHSO report

The four key issues highlighted in the report are:

• Patients being discharged before they are clinically ready to leave hospital
• Patients not being assessed or consulted properly before their discharge
• Relatives and carers not being told that their loved one has been discharged
• Patients being discharged with no home-care plan in place or being kept in hospital due to poor co-ordination across services

Written submissions

We invite submissions of written evidence about the quality and content of the PHSO's report and the actions that the Department of Health and NHS organisations should be taking to address the issues raised.

Those wishing to submit evidence should note that the Committee is unable to deal with individual cases. Written evidence should focus on the PHSO's report and actions needed to address the issues raised. Submissions should not include detailed descriptions of individual cases. Submissions that do not meet these criteria may not be accepted by the Committee.

The deadline for written evidence is Monday 4 July 2016.

• Submit written evidence to the follow-up to PHSO report on unsafe discharge from hospital inquiry
• More information on submitting evidence to Select Committees

Guidance on written submissions 

The personal information you supply will be processed in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 for the purposes of attributing the evidence you submit and contacting you as necessary in connection with its processing. The Clerk of the House of Commons is the data controller for the purposes of the Act. We may also ask you to comment on the process of submitting evidence via the web portal so that we can look to make improvements.

Each submission should:

• be no more than 3,000 words in length
• be in Word format with as little use of colour or logos as possible
• have numbered paragraphs
• include a declaration of interests.

Please note that:

Material already published elsewhere should not form the basis of a submission, but may be referred to within a memorandum, in which case a hard copy of the published work should be included.

Memoranda submitted must be kept confidential until published by the Committee, unless publication by the person or organisation submitting it is specifically authorised.

Once submitted, evidence is the property of the Committee. The Committee normally, though not always, chooses to make public the written evidence it receives, by publishing it on the internet (where it will be searchable), by printing it or by making it available through the Parliamentary Archives. If there is any information you believe to be sensitive you should highlight it and explain what harm you believe would result from its disclosure. The Committee will take this into account in deciding whether to publish or further disclose the evidence.

Further information

• Guidance: written submissions
• About Parliament: Select committees
• Visiting Parliament: Watch committees

Image: PA