Clause 2 - Notice of patient's possible need

Part of Community Care (Delayed Discharges etc.) Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 12:00 pm on 10 December 2002.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Jacqui Smith Jacqui Smith Minister of State, Department of Health 12:00, 10 December 2002

The hon. Gentleman asks whether the Bill will change that definition; it will not. After consultation with the team, hospitals have always had to make the final decision on whether it is safe to discharge someone. As my hon. Friend the Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham) said, surely we would not expect anyone else to determine whether it was clinically safe to discharge someone.

Clause 2 is about notifying social services that it might be necessary to arrange community care to ensure that someone can be safely discharged from hospital. Some of the amendments imply that social services and the NHS would need to agree on whether social services should be notified about a patient's case. It is unclear quite how the NHS could come to such an agreement with social services, not least because social services might not even be aware of a patient's existence before the NHS notified them. It is a bit nonsensical for social services to have to agree to be notified by the hospital that a patient exists.