Royal Surrey Celebrates Opening of New Patient Discharge Hub

A new discharge hub was officially opened at the Royal Surrey County Hospital on Thursday 14^th June.  The new hub houses teams from the Royal Surrey, Surrey County Council, Surrey Community Health and the British Red Cross to enable the different services to work collaboratively to streamline patient discharge. 

The hub brings together a variety of staff groups including Occupational Therapists, Social Care workers, Nurses, Discharge Co-ordinators, Physiotherapists and members of the Red Cross Home from Hospital service.  

Royal Surrey Medical Director Dr Christopher Tibbs comments: 

“The focus of the hub is to improve the quality of patient care and discharge, enhance communications and improve collaborative working practices by allowing the teams involved to work collectively. Previously all the teams were in different offices across the hospital but we have brought them together in the same place.  The hub is a fantastic new environment for everyone and the teams involved are working hard to improve planning and promote timely discharge.” 

A project group, led by Royal Surrey Occupational Therapy Manager Suzanne Ward and Adult Social Care Manager Stella Smith, is being established to further streamline practice and processes with the aim of reducing duplication and delay and improving service delivery for patients and their families. 

Dr Tibbs concludes: 

“The hub has only been in operation for a few weeks but already communication links have improved, with the teams making the most of new opportunities to share learning and knowledge for patient benefit.”