What to arrange before discharge so care is ready at home

Getting home is just the beginning—discharge happens fast, and if you haven't organised what you actually need in place, you'll arrive to chaos when you're at your most vulnerable. The real win is planning the logistics before your hospital bed becomes available for the next person.

What the hospital expects you to have sorted

Before discharge, the ward will want confirmation that someone is taking responsibility for your ongoing care. They'll run through a checklist: someone to collect you, a safe place to recover, medications organised, and ideally a record of any appointments already booked. None of this needs to be a nurse yet—it might just be a family member and a GP follow-up—but the hospital needs to know the plan exists. If you've arranged home nursing, they'll want to hear it, and some will want direct contact details so they can brief your nurse on wound protocols, medication timing, or mobility restrictions. Don't assume the nurse will get this information another way; hospitals won't release patients without it.

Practical things to prepare at home

Before you're discharged, walk through your living space and ask: can I move safely? Is my bedroom ground-floor or upstairs? Where will my medications live, and who refills them? What about laundry, showering, and toileting when I can't bend or weight-bear? These aren't nurse questions yet—they're real-world friction points. You might need grab rails installed, a shower chair, a commode if stairs are too much, or simply a bedside table at the right height. A home nurse can advise on some of this, but many items need to be in place before they arrive. List what you know you need (or ask the occupational therapist at the hospital), source it, and have it ready. Nothing wastes a nurse's time like arriving to find you don't have basic equipment in the right spot.

Arrange for someone—a family member, friend, or carer—to be your anchor person for the first week. They don't do the nursing, but they're home when the nurse arrives, they fetch urgent supplies, and they know who to call if something shifts. This person should have copies of your discharge paperwork, a list of medications, and the nurse's contact details. If you live alone, a home nurse becomes even more critical, and you may also need a neighbour or family member checking in on non-nursing days.

When to book your nurse before leaving hospital

Ideally, your nurse is confirmed and briefed before you walk out the door. If you're waiting for a decision on medical aid approval, that delay happens now, not after you're home and panicking. Contact your preferred nurse or agency 2–3 days before the expected discharge date. Tell them the date, your surgery type, mobility restrictions, wound care needs, and how many visits per week you'll need. Ask them to confirm availability and to liaise directly with the hospital if needed. If you don't have a nurse lined up yet, the hospital may refer you to an agency, but you can also search verified nurses on Strove, read their profiles, and ring a few to check they have capacity and experience with your type of recovery.

Don't wait until you're home to discover your first-choice nurse is booked out. Discharge is predictable; use that window to lock in your care.

Medications, equipment, and follow-up dates

Before discharge, you should have a printed list of every medication: the name, dose, timing, and how long you'll take it. Ask the pharmacist to explain any new drugs. Confirm your GP will have this list and that you have a follow-up appointment booked within the timeframe the surgeon specified. If you need wound dressings, catheter supplies, or compression stockings, ask whether the hospital will provide them for the first week or whether you need to buy them. Your nurse can guide you on where to source them, but you don't want to discover this gap on day three when the nurse arrives and you've nothing to work with. Check that you or a carer knows how to get scripts repeated and how to contact your GP out of hours if something changes.

The smoother these logistics run, the more your nurse can focus on actual care instead of troubleshooting what should have been arranged weeks earlier.