Hip replacement - when should an 82 year old be discharged from hospital?

That's fairly standard, I'd say. Have Occupational Therpy been to assess his house and provide any aids? That's what happened with my mum, also in her 80's then.

TBH, the relief from the terrible pain she'd endured made her feel years younger and she coped very well.

I hope your dad makes a good recovery.

My mum was discharged very quickly, and ended up back in A & E, where we told she didn't qualify for any help, as it should have been set up before she was discharged.
She ended up coming to live with me for 9 months.

Our neighbour who lives on his own and is in his eighties was sent home very quickly. I think the worst thing for him was not being able to get out and therefore being lonely.

My husband went in every day and spent time with him. The neighbour is a smoker and I have lung problems so I couldn't go in but made small, healthy meals for my husband to take in.

ASAP

weeme that is probably the hospital protocol but I think your father won’t be discharged until the physios have made sure that he can get up and down stairs and that he can prepare a meal in the microwave.
Having said that, when MrA had a hip replacement he needed quite a lot of looking after for at least two weeks after he came home from hospital, and for a variety of reasons, he stayed in for 5 days.
Could you stay with him for a while after he comes home? Occupational therapy should already have assessed his home & made sure he has a chair at the right height, and his bed is the right height.
If this hasn’t been done, perhaps you need to make a phone call or two.
I hope it goes well for your father & he has a new lease of life.

Hospital discharges seem far too soon to older people. After a hip replacement 20 years ago I was in hospital for 11 days and my mother was in the same time after a hysterectomy. My daughter was discharged 24 hours after her recent hysterectomy and felt fine.
Op’s frail old father will at least need a lot of help afterwards.

I was talking to someone the other day who is going in today for a hip replacement and out on Sunday. She does have a DH to look after her.
Sometimes it is better to go home than stay in and risk hospital acquired infections.

His home should have been assessed for suitability; as others have suggested, can you or another family member go to stay with him to look after him?

My OH had a hip revision, second hip replacement of the same hip on the 10th December and came home on the 12th on two sticks. We live in a second floor flat, 4 flights of stairs, and he does manage these but there is no way he could manage indoors without my help. He is also in his 60's not his 80's.
I do hope your father has been assessed and has been given all the aids he will need.
I wish him well .

I had my hip op on Friday and discharged on Monday , the Physiotherapist made sure I could use crutches and go up and down stairs . DD1 stayed for a couple of days , mainly because I was the carer for my immobile OH . Stairs were no problem because I has the bannister on one side and a hand rail on the other , I had all the aids in place from when OH was mobile , the most useful was a push along trolley from the Occupational therapist I was 80 and was very immobile before my op , but so much better immediately after the surgery . As mentioned above , the sooner he gets out the better ! Hospital is full of germs !

Occupational Therapy should have assessed before the op and set him up with things like a commode if needed to save him going up and down stairs
When my mum was ill I brought her a single bed downstairs for a couple of weeks
Can you or another family member help out and stay a few days or have him with you a few days ?

It is usual for a pre-op appointment to establish the home circumstances and whether any help is needed. Then, after the op, the physio usually checks whether the patient can get up and down the stairs before they are discharged.

If you think he is being discharged too soon when you see what he can do on Monday, then you will have to make it clear to the ward staff that he lives alone and will not be able to manage - and that he cannot go home till care is in place.

But, as others have pointed out, as long as he can manage, he is safer away from hospital bugs.

There will be drugs he needs to take when he is discharged and he needs to be able to manage taking those at the right dosage and the right time.

I was in for 5 days because of some post-op problems; and I needed lots of help at home afterwards too.

Where there are relatives the staff obviously assume that the patient will be more or less discharged to their care particularly over the festive season which for them eases up a bed in readiness for their busiest time.

He will have mega problems getting in and out of bed on his own during the night if he needs to go to the loo. Will he be using crutches because if so he cannot carry a mug of tea or whatever with him, never mind a meal heated in the microwave.

Most patients are supplied with various aids at home before they are admitted. Things like a raised toilet seat, a commode, a gadget for getting socks on without bending, long-handled shoehorn etc. Has your Dad got these?

Have chairs been checked to make sure they are not too low because he could dislocate his hip if they are.

I'd say as soon as they are able to so that another patient can be dealt with and he's not bed blocking which often happens because family can't be bothered to do their bit in after care.
Can't remember who it was that said 20 years ago you stayed in for 11 days .. Well 20 years ago you had to stay in for 5 days after child birth but now you are lucky to stay in for 6 hours .
Probably in a few years you will only get a bed for 6 hours after a hip replacement. Who knows . Maybe there will be no nhs then at all.

He won't be discharged home - he'll probably be going to a rehabilitation unit somewhere. I assume he'll need carers for a short time, at least.

Surely you can't leave him on his own at home over the festive period?

If it was my DF I couldn't possibly do that, even if it meant foregoing my own family Christmas.

I should say he surely won't be sent home..... but he will need to be assessed, and if necessary, a care package will need to be in place, along with a commode and anything else he might need.

Nanability - "family can't be bothered to do their bit in after care."

That seems a bit harsh! I worked in hospital discharges and relatives were in the main keen to do their bit.

No-one elderly should be discharged from hospital until there has been an assessment by the local Social Services Department as whether his house is suitable for his discharge and whether there are a full set of support measures in place.

Here is a link to the Age UK Factsheet on hospital discharge, which explains the whole system and all the people who need to be involved before discharge can take place. www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/factsheets/fs37_hospital_discharge_fcs.pdf Make sure it is adhered to.

Hospitals will often try to discharge patients without going through this process, because they just want them out, but print the factsheet out and take it with you and make sure your father is fully assessed before he is discharged

Yes, exactly!
It certainly wasn't because we 'couldn't be bothered' with my mum.
I asked time and again to see somebody (anybody!) before she was discharged, and got a phone call at about 8pm on a Friday night to say she was already discharged and waiting for me to pick her up!

I had the same problem when looking after an aunt and uncle, both with dementia. Social Services refused to do a home visit because it was 'too far', (20 miles). I was doing thesame round trip daily and sometimes twice daily and the hospital 5 miles away that she was in, was - just - into another council area, so 'out of county' the nearest in-county hospital was 25 miles away. No I will stop there. I have ranted before about what happened. 10 years after the event it still upsets me and makes me very angry.

When I had the hip replacement - 13 years ago - I spent 4 days learning how to walk and navigate the stairs. The OTs made sure I could use the kitchen and get in and out of the bath, using a bath seat. A neighbour who'd had the op had lent me a raised loo seat and a bath seat as well as blocks to raise the height of my bed and a 'helping hand' grabber. Social Services assessed my needs and supplemented all these aids with a wheeled trolley to carry food from the kitchen. As I live on my own, my sister came to stay for a week just to keep an eye on me. I found that I slept quite a lot. When my DS and family came for a weekend and took me shopping, it was fun to use the wheelchairs provided in M&S and Sainsbury's.