Express & Star comment: Hospital patients deserve more dignity

So it’s important that everything possible is done to ensure patients are put at ease and their stays in hospital made as smooth as possible.

That’s why it is deeply concerning to see so many patients are being sent out the doors and on their way in the middle of the night.

Hundreds of patients are being discharged from hospitals at ungodly hours every month.

They include elderly and the most vulnerable patients, as data obtained by the Express & Star showed some were taken to care homes or hospices after leaving hospital between 10pm and 6am.

Just having to be in hospital can be confusing enough for elderly patients, who may have various health conditions, let alone then being told you’re going home in the middle of the night.

Among the thousands of patients being discharged from our hospitals during the night will be those who have requested to leave or have arrived at A&E late in the day, only then to be told they don’t need to stay.

But there is no getting away from the fact patients are routinely discharged from the wards in darkness.

Horror stories have emerged over recent years of elderly patients being left to make their way home in nightdresses after being shown the doors, and it simply can’t be right for someone who has been unwell, whatever their age, to have to go home at a time when public transport has stopped and the streets are almost deserted.

The crippling pressures on the NHS are well documented. Hospitals, including Wolverhampton’s New Cross and Sandwell General, have been operating with all beds full at times over recent weeks. This has brought a pressure on health bosses to free up beds wherever possible, to get patients out who no longer need to be there.

Our doctors and nurses are in an unenviable position and nobody doubts how hard they are working to provide the best levels of care.

But every patient deserves the dignity of being sent home in daylight.