The U.K.\u2019s \u2018National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death\u2019 is a charity and a company limited by guarantee. It sounds a formidable body, but has a restrictive and important brief. Their recent report fully justifies their existence and the value of their research. Over a three-month period in 2008, medical specialists investigated the deaths of patients aged over 80 in hospitals within 30 days of surgery. They concluded that only a third of elderly patients who get admitted to British hospitals for an operation, get good care, with their specific needs insufficiently understood by doctors. Elderly people, who have been living at home, are often admitted after falling and fracturing a hip. After surgery they swiftly go downhill, and many die in hospital.<\/p>\n
The report found that that most of such patients were admitted as emergencies by very junior doctors without timely input by senior clinicians experienced in the care of the elderly. \u2018There is a long way to go to ensure good practice and appropriate care\u2019 says Ian Martin, one of the report\u2019s authors, lamenting that previous advice from NCEPOD in 1999 and 2001 had been ignored. Dr Kathy Wilkinson, another member of the group, says that pain is not being monitored, let alone addressed and controlled and the survey had revealed organisational failures to respond to the suffering of elderly patients.<\/p>\n
\u2018This report\u2019, says a representative of Age U.K., \u2018is a stark reminder that far too often older people in the U.K. receive second or even third-rate care in hospital, condemning many of them to an early death. Our healthcare system is failing to meet the needs of an ageing population and this situation is only set to deteriorate further as life expectancy continues to increase.\u2019 Responding to the report, Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association says \u2018It is unbelievable that any acute hospital can be in the business of caring for any patient without an acute pain service\u2026and without the correct specialist team\u2019.<\/p>\n
Jo Webber of the N.H.S .Confederation said care of the elderly was complex, but \u2018there is absolutely no excuse for poor care regardless of the age of the person involved.\u2019 The government\u2019s care services minister, Paul Barstow, has said that the study \u2018paints a disturbing and unacceptable picture of the quality of care experienced by older people\u2019. He blamed it on the previous government. <\/p>\n
\u2026hopefully he has a more practical solution to this major scandal than merely indulging in the blame game.<\/p>\n
Bryan<\/p>\n
* thanks to the Guardian and the B.B.C. for this information. The full report is available on the web.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The U.K.\u2019s \u2018National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death\u2019 is a charity and a company limited by guarantee. It sounds a formidable body, but has a restrictive and important brief. Their recent report fully justifies their existence and the value of their research. Over a three-month period in 2008, medical specialists investigated the deaths of patients aged over 80 in hospitals within 30 days of surgery. They concluded that only a third of elderly patients who get admitted to British hospitals for an operation, get good care, with their specific needs insufficiently understood by doctors. Elderly people, who have <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"yoast_head":"\n