Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Our journals
    • Clinical Medicine
    • Future Healthcare Journal
  • Subject collections
  • About the RCP
  • Contact us

Clinical Medicine Journal

  • ClinMed Home
  • Content
    • Current
    • Ahead of print
    • Archive
  • Author guidance
    • Instructions for authors
    • Submit online
  • About ClinMed
    • Scope
    • Editorial board
    • Policies
    • Information for reviewers
    • Advertising

User menu

  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
RCP Journals
Home
  • Log in
  • Home
  • Our journals
    • Clinical Medicine
    • Future Healthcare Journal
  • Subject collections
  • About the RCP
  • Contact us
Advanced

Clinical Medicine Journal

clinmedicine Logo
  • ClinMed Home
  • Content
    • Current
    • Ahead of print
    • Archive
  • Author guidance
    • Instructions for authors
    • Submit online
  • About ClinMed
    • Scope
    • Editorial board
    • Policies
    • Information for reviewers
    • Advertising

Conscientious care for the unconscious patient

Sunil j Ankolekar and Abdel magid Bakheit
Download PDF
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7861/clinmedicine.14-5-559
Clin Med October 2014
Sunil j Ankolekar
Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust, Birmingham, UK
Roles: StR in rehabilitation medicine
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Abdel magid Bakheit
Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust, Birmingham, UK
Roles: Professor of neurological rehabilitation
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
Loading

Editor – Prof Derick Wade has eloquently summarised a complex issue in ‘Conscientious care for the unconscious patient: new guidance from the Royal College of Physicians’ (Clin Med June 2014 pp 290–1). It has been mentioned that national specialist commissioning should fund all active healthcare while someone is in a vegetative or minimally conscious state. The bed availability at a tertiary neurological rehabilitation unit can be variable and the study of the utilisation of these beds has received little attention.

We conducted a study with the aim to establish the frequency of and reasons for the inappropriately delayed discharges (IDD) from a regional specialist neurological rehabilitation unit. 51 out of 67 patients admitted to the unit were included in this study. Only 19 (37.3%) of them were discharged from hospital on time. The discharge of 32 (62.7%) patients was delayed and the delay was inappropriate in 18 (56.2%) of the 32 cases. Delays in social service provision was the main reason for IDD. This occurred despite the fact that the discharge process was started early and was supported by discharge coordinators. Although other factors may contribute to IDD, addressing the delays of social service provision would be important in reducing IDD.

The new Royal College of Physicians’ Prolonged disorders of consciousness: national clinical guidelines recommend that continuing healthcare funding should be responsible for all long-term care costs. If these guidelines are followed through we could reduce IDD, thus leading to enhanced availability of beds at tertiary neurological rehabilitation units.

  • © 2014 Royal College of Physicians
Back to top
Previous articleNext article

Article Tools

Download PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Citation Tools
Conscientious care for the unconscious patient
Sunil j Ankolekar, Abdel magid Bakheit
Clinical Medicine Oct 2014, 14 (5) 559; DOI: 10.7861/clinmedicine.14-5-559

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Share
Conscientious care for the unconscious patient
Sunil j Ankolekar, Abdel magid Bakheit
Clinical Medicine Oct 2014, 14 (5) 559; DOI: 10.7861/clinmedicine.14-5-559
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
  • Info & Metrics

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • JAK-inhibition as a therapeutic strategy for refractory primary systemic vasculitides
  • Response
  • Functional disorders and chronic pain
Show more Letters to the editor

Similar Articles

Navigate this Journal

  • Journal Home
  • Current Issue
  • Ahead of Print
  • Archive

Related Links

  • ClinMed - Home
  • FHJ - Home
clinmedicine Footer Logo
  • Home
  • Journals
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
HighWire Press, Inc.

Follow Us:

  • Follow HighWire Origins on Twitter
  • Visit HighWire Origins on Facebook

Copyright © 2021 by the Royal College of Physicians