Full story in The Guardian, 1 June 2018
A growing number of patients are being readmitted to hospital as emergency cases within days of being discharged, raising fears that hospitals are so busy and understaffed that they are providing inadequate care.
The number of patients who have to be taken back into hospital in England within 30 days rose 19.2% from 1.16 million in 2010-11 to 1.38 million in 2016-17, according to a report by the Nuffield Trust and Health Foundation thinktanks.
The findings have prompted concern that hospitals are discharging some patients too soon, that warning signs about patients’ conditions are being missed, possibly because staff are so busy, and that staff are dealing with patients who should not need to be there.