Worked example: hospital discharge to community care

For a covered English provider under the applicable 2026/27 NHS Standard Contract, SC11.5 requires a discharge summary within 24 hours using recipient-specific electronic delivery methods. Wales's cited eDAL provision is a recommendation; Scotland has a binding digital pathway for defined glaucoma-care discharges; the reviewed NI sources establish operational routes without a universal digital-only discharge duty. ^{181, 182, 199, 216, 219}

The organisational implication is to specify the actual sender, relevant recipients, summary content, delivery method and deadline before approving a discharge interface. Availability in a shared record does not necessarily satisfy a clause requiring delivery to a named recipient within a set period.

Follow the hospital handover

A person is discharged with GP follow-up, community healthcare and social care needs. For this sequence, assume the English provider's adopted full-length contract and service category bring the event within SC11.5. The national differences follow below; the assumption must not be applied automatically to every provider.

Step	Responsible organisation and information	Required action in the assumed English case
1. Identify the summary and recipients	The hospital identifies the applicable discharge summary, patient GP and/or other referrer, and relevant third-party health/social-care providers.	Use the contract's scope and content requirements; the actual recipients and their roles matter.
2. Deliver to the GP where applicable	The hospital sends the summary to the GP under the GP and/or referrer clause.	Within 24 hours after the relevant transfer/discharge, by direct automatic transfer into the GP electronic patient record (EPR) through a suitable secure interface.
3. Deliver to other relevant recipients	The hospital sends to the other referrer where applicable and any relevant third-party health/social-care provider.	Within the same scoped 24-hour period, by direct EPR transfer or secure NHS/equivalent email as the protocol requires or permits.
4. Support the receiving care process	GP, community healthcare and social care each have their own role in continuing care.	Receipt, review, reconciliation and action are distinct from the sender's delivery duty. The recipient's actual care and contractual responsibilities need separate assessment.

The source for the assumed delivery duties is the adopted contract's SC11.5 and defined Delivery Methods. A recipient's independent-provider or social-care status does not itself establish a reciprocal obligation under that contract. ^{181, 182}

Content and technical standards

A discharge summary can include medication changes, relevant results and follow-up actions. The applicable source defines its required content; those examples are not a new universal field list. Share the information justified for the relevant recipient and purpose. ^{181, 182, 171}

The acute inpatient/day-case discharge-to-GP standard DAPB4042 supplies a scoped content/transfer approach. Its saved statutory regime and any applicable contractual conformance route remain distinct. The contract definition says a summary may conform to DAPB4042; independent applicable SC28 conformance terms must also be considered. That one word establishes neither a universal mandate nor a universal exemption. ENG-011. ^{185, 186, 192, 181, 182}

A summary-record view, a pathology report and a discharge-send obligation are different exchanges. The SCR and blood-results examples explain those other routes.

Compare the four nations

Nation and defined situation	Identified exchange	Legal force and boundary
England: covered provider/service under the adopted full-length 2026/27 contract	SC11.5 discharge summary within 24 hours to the GP and/or other referrer and any relevant third-party health/social-care provider. GP and other-recipient Delivery Methods differ.	Contractual duty within actual categories and conditions. ENG-006, ENG-007. ^{181, 182}
Wales: 2026 clinical-interface standards	Standard 9 says eDAL should be completed at discharge with a patient copy. Standard 6 separately addresses an agreed electronic referral/outpatient route where one exists.	eDAL recommendation; the separate referral wording is not a verified statutory all-discharge duty. Actual adopting/local terms remain relevant. WAL-008, WAL-009. ¹⁹⁹
Scotland: eligible hospital-eye-service discharge into CGS	The No.3 Directions require the relevant letter in the Ophthalmology EPR, with related record-updating and clinician-use requirements.	Defined statutory direction and required service terms, effective 1 November 2026. Not an all-hospital discharge rule. SCT-D01, SCT-D02, SCT-D03. ²¹⁶
Northern Ireland: GP correspondence and encompass access	Published sources describe Electronic Document Transfer for much GP correspondence, retained paper/scanning and approved professional viewing.	Operational/procurement evidence; no universal digital-only discharge method or numerical deadline established by those sources. NI-D07, NI-D08. ^{219, 220}

Capacity, children and representative authority

The same discharge involves three separate questions: who decides the care arrangements, what may be disclosed for continuing care, and who may access records as a representative. The four-nation authority map covers adult capacity, children and young people, and representative powers.

Apply the relevant patient variant: an adult making their own decision, an adult lacking capacity for a particular decision, a competent young person, or a child needing an appropriate representative. Establish the actual authority for the information or account access. A contact, next-of-kin or product-proxy label does not settle that legal question. ^{241, 244, 245, 249, 255}

The map includes England/Wales Mental Capacity Act and attorney/deputy boundaries, Scottish Adults with Incapacity and age rules, and NI's partial-implementation position. It supports the exchange analysis without creating a universal capacity-message dataset.

Cross-border and independent-provider handover

A sender's national duty or contract does not automatically govern the recipient. Identify each organisation's actual service, role and terms. An independent provider's NHS-commissioned work can have a different position from its self-pay work. The national comparison and provider account explain these boundaries.

The reviewed sources support the specified English contract duties and Scottish pathway, alongside the Welsh recommendation and NI operational routes. Actual local agreements, protocols or directions can add requirements. Their contents are needed before attributing those duties to a particular organisation.

Requirements catalogue · Capacity and representation · SCR and equivalents · Blood results

Where abuse or neglect is suspected, the protection worked examples add the separate referral, digital-system and controlled-access decisions.