Eleven days on the ward
Anil
Support for an admission covered the bed, the investigations ordered during the stay, and the discharge medicines.
I knew I would get better, I did not know what it would cost my brother.
Anil was admitted at night, brought in by a neighbour. He works when there is work, and the days he spent on the ward were days he did not earn. His family understood the treatment. What they could not see was how the bill would end.
An admission is rarely one cost. There is the bed, the tests ordered during the stay as the picture changes, the drugs, and then the medicines to take home. Families often manage the first of these and are undone by the fourth.
The trust's hospital support covered the stay and the investigations ordered alongside it, and the discharge medicines were arranged before he left the building rather than left as an errand for later.
He was on the ward for eleven days. He came back once for a review, which he might not have done had he been discharged with an unsettled account.