This article summarises the Department of Health Circular (89)5 which requires health authorities to ensure good arrangements for patients' discharge from hospital. It reviews the literature on this topic and compares what has been said with what has been meant when professionals have written about their participation in the process of discharge. The second article deals with models of policy implementation by which the policy process can be analysed in order to inform implementation methods. It describes how implementation has been tackled so far in one health district.
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