Vulnerable patients and their families are enduring ‘harrowing ordeals’ due to poor hospital discharge practices and a lack of coordination with social care services, health ombudsman reports.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has published a new study which warns patients are being improperly released from hospitals and being sent home regardless of their condition.

In one case covered in the report, a woman in her 80s was sent home to an empty house in a confused state and with a catheter still in place. In another, the Ombudsman discovered a father’s death from sepsis could have been avoided if he had been treated for the condition before he was discharged from hospital.

Last year the Ombudsman recorded a 36% increase in discharge related investigations, which found people’s deaths or suffering could have been prevented if hospitals carried out the right checks before discharging people.

Ombudsman Julie Mellor said: ‘Our investigations have found that some of the most vulnerable patients, including frail and older people, are enduring harrowing ordeals when they leave hospital.

‘Poor planning, coordination and communication between hospital staff and between health and social care services are failing patients, compromising their safety and dignity.

‘Health and social care leaders must work harder to uncover why ten years of guidance to prevent unsafe discharge is not being followed, causing misery and distress for patients, families and carers.’

Responding to the report, Professor Gillian Leng, deputy chief executive and director of health and social care at NICE, said: ‘This report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman brings to light serious concerns and gaps in care where patients are being sent home under inappropriate and poor circumstances.

‘It is these potential gaps in care that our social care guidance, 'Transition between inpatient hospital settings and community or care home settings for adults with social care needs', aims to address.’

Professor Leng said the Ombudsman’s findings underline the importance of putting into practice NICE’s social care guidance, and added the non-departmental public body is producing a quality standard (QS) on transitions for adults with social care needs.

Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK also responded to the Ombudsman’s report, arguing: ‘this report and the dreadful cases it describes mark a new low in what looks like a continuous downward trend in the capacity of our health and care system to look after our older people adequately.’

She continued: ‘Good practice is about much more than just money but it is surely no coincidence that the position is getting worse at a time when the NHS is under appalling financial pressure and the social care system is falling apart at the seams.

‘We cannot go on like this. The Government needs to get a grip and arrest the process of decline, and if that means re-opening the Spending Review and investing substantially more in the NHS and in social care then that's what they should do, and quickly.’