Discharge

During your stay, your doctors and nurses will provide you with the approximate length of your hospital visit. 

Discharge times

The official discharge time on all wards is 10am.

Discharge planning 

It is in the best interest of all patients to start planning for discharge and after-care as soon as possible. 

If you think you will need support at home, please advise our staff so that necessary support services can be arranged prior to discharge. 

Family and friends can assist patients by helping to organise transport ahead of time. Before leaving the ward, please make sure you collect any private x-rays, scans or medications/prescriptions (including your own medicines along with new medicines prescribed on discharge) and confirm if you have any follow-up appointments. 

Patients are also reminded to collect all of their personal belongings before being discharged from hospital. 

Medications on Discharge 

If you brought your medicines from home into hospital, ensure they are returned to you before your discharge. Be mindful of medicines that staff may have stored in the refrigerator or locked cupboards.

Your doctor may need to make changes to your medicines on discharge, including new medicines or changes to your existing medications. Before you leave hospital discuss any questions about your medicines with the hospital staff. Your discharge summary will include a complete list of medicines and is available to be printed separately if you require.

If you need new medications on discharge your doctor will issue a prescription. There are two options available for the supply of discharge medicines:

1. Hospital pharmacy

Your treating team will organise for a prescription to be sent to the pharmacy, and your discharge medication will be delivered to the ward. Patients do not need to attend the pharmacy to collect medications.

Supply by the hospital pharmacy may add additional wait times for discharge depending on when prescriptions are made available.

Medicines dispensed by the hospital pharmacy are not free of charge. A prescription copayment will be sent to you from the Pharmacy for any discharge medicines. The charges are in line with those charged by Community Pharmacies.

2. Community pharmacy

The majority of discharge prescriptions are suitable to be supplied by your community pharmacy. If this is your preferred option, the doctor will issue you with either an electronic prescription or a physical prescription.

There are certain medicines that may be difficult to find or not available by community pharmacies. When this is the case, the hospital staff will advise you and we may recommend you get your discharge medicines from the hospital pharmacy to ensure ongoing access to medicines your doctor has prescribed.