Last month the Discharge Lounge at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust (UHP) celebrated five years of helping keep patients flowing through the hospital, freeing up beds and creating space for new admissions.

To celebrate the success of the Lounge and its dedicated team over the last five years, the team put on a celebration, with a cake sale, wellbeing treatments for colleagues and decorations to mark the occasion.

The Discharge Lounge cares for patients from across the hospital who are medically fit for discharge and no longer need hospital care but may be waiting for onwards transport or medication to take home.

By caring for patients in the Discharge Lounge, rather than them waiting on the wards, it frees up the ward bed and ensures effective patient admission flow from the Emergency Department onto the wards.

Over the last five years, patients have been able to have a more relaxing experience when being discharged, in a location away from the wards.

In 2023, the Lounge celebrated a record-breaking day where they discharged 58 patients over a 12-hour period.

However, the team have broken their record again last year.

Kellyann Whalley is the Senior Sister at the Discharge Lounge and started with the team as a Junior Sister when the Lounge first opened.

Speaking about the anniversary, she said: “The record number of patients through the Lounge in one day is currently 73, but on average we see around 50 to 60 patients who are medically fit for discharge but are usually waiting for medicines, or transport, or both. You wouldn’t get that turnaround on a ward and we do only run on a handful of staff so that’s quite an impressive record.

“We are lucky to have had lots of feedback which says it is a nice change to leave the ward environment and instead wait in the Discharge Lounge.

I hope that by us providing this space, away from the hustle and bustle of the hospital, patients remember the calmer experience and feel more relaxed when they go home.”

The Discharge Lounge is located on level 3 of Derriford Hospital, with direct access outside, making transferring patients to transport simple. It has a combination of comfortable armchairs and recliners for patients and there are also two beds available for patients who are not able to sit or would be more comfortable lying down. There is plenty of entertainment on offer as well, with two flatscreen TVs, books, games and magazines, and patients are provided with a selection of hot and cold food and drink throughout their stay in the Lounge.

For more information on the Discharge Lounge visit: https://www.plymouthhospitals.nhs.uk/discharge-lounge/

Derriford Hospital is a large teaching hospital which serves large areas of the South Hams.

It also provides tertiary cardiothoracic surgery, neurosurgery, renal transplant surgery and immunology/allergy for the whole SW Peninsula.

It is managed by the University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust.

It was designated a major trauma centre in 2013.