My Lords, I shall speak to all the amendments in this group, but I have added my name to Amendment 217 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Wheeler. There are two separate but related issues in this group of amendments, and it might be helpful for a moment to focus on them. The first is the needs of patients who are facing discharge from hospital. The second is the needs of unpaid carers in situations where patients are sent home from hospital. That second issue is covered particularly by Amendments 219, 221, 225 and 269. I support all of them, and commend the work and the words of the noble Baroness, Lady Pitkeathley, and the passionate speech from my noble friend Lord Young.
I wholeheartedly share the concerns about the repeal of the provisions in the Care Act 2014. The issue of patients needing to be discharged from hospital sometimes seems to be spoken of as if we are discussing objects rather than people.
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The pandemic seems to have revealed a worrying trend within the health service, which I hope my noble friend the Minister can reassure the Committee will not continue, whereby hospitals discharging patients have been so focused on the needs of the hospital rather than the needs of the patient that the idea has been to get them out rather than to make sure that they are ready to leave and have somewhere to go. Part of the problem is that we have not retained the kind of institutions that, in the past, might have been called convalescent homes or convalescent wards in hospitals, so that acute care beds could be released.
Even with Amendment 217 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Wheeler, there is reason to be concerned that a patient can be discharged and will not have an assessment for two weeks—or will not even have an assessment, given, as the noble Lord, Lord Davies,
rightly said, the crisis within the care system. Therefore, that patient, and the unpaid carers who will be struggling to try to look after them while they wait for the assessment, will be caught up in a problem that could well result in significant harm to the patient who has been discharged, and ultimately to the wider group of unpaid carers who are struggling to look after them.
The measures in Clause 80, which would repeal the protections that are in place for patients before they are discharged from hospital, could benefit from reconsideration. I hope that my noble friend the Minister will meet interested Peers to discuss an alternative to this repeal of Clause 80.