What happened to mrs. Peterson ?
She went to the outpatient department with the referral card of the of the general practitioner.
There, after some investigations, the surgeon concludes that she needs surgery. So an appointment has to be made to have her admitted to hospital. At this point it is very well possible that she is faced with a waiting list. This can mean that she has to wait for months before she can be admitted to hospital. Of course, this depends on the urgency of the situation. Then, after a hospital stay of about two weeks, she leaves the hospital. Before she goes home, the nurses of the hospital have informed the home care organization, because she cannot look after the house for herself, so she needs some housekeeping assistence. If she has problems with the healing of the wound, she may also need some nursing care for the wound.
The specialist sends a discharge letter to the family doctor. When going from hospital to home care, Mrs. Peterson will have another problem. She will probably receive the necessary nursing care, but the necessary domestic help is probably not available. Because there is a big chance that she will not receive the assistance that she needs, she will have to look for other ways to solve this problem.
