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Improving care for an ageing population: what works?
By 2030, one in five people in England will be aged over 65. That we are living longer is a cause for celebration, but it presents major challenges to our health and care system.
This slideset summarises our report. It highlights nine components of care (and an integrated system to support these components) that need to be improved to provide person-centred, relevant care for older people. The slideset sets out the current situation and provides practical guidance on actions that will make a difference.
Comments
I strongly agreed with Oliver's comment on our aging population and their health, especially the older adults in our communities who are very frail with higher conditions should give basic treatment and respect, at least to remember when they were young, and put them at the centre of care for the rest of their life, and minimize judgmental approach for the benefit of our society, by placing them in care system to avoid embarrassment to our youths.
2. We need to use a common system to succinctly describe multimorbidity such as SBARD, which includes a section on anticipated risks and their safeguards
3. We need more awareness of delirium, dementia and depression associated with hospitalised elders and avoid inappropriate use of the Liverpool Care Pathway (and other similar processes) to deprive them of fluid in order to hasten death (as happened in Mid staffs and other hospitals)
I always ask for copies of correspondence involving my care, and time and again I have found errors in my medical record - from stating I had 2 children, when I was a mother of 4, to an error in my place of birth.
A great GP once told me he always asks his patients to write their own referral letters, which he sends with his own, as patients often supply far more useful information for consultants when they have the chance to write about the symptoms and history in their own time at home. So that's what I do. Every little helps - towards patient autonomy - and towards improving both the patient experience and the standard of healthcare.
Patient-centred care has to mean there is genuine patient partnership - and that has to start with respect for the person.
Having been involved professionally with the NHS & IT for many years, over that period the focus has been on clinical IT systems to help the various clinical & nursing professionals to do their job & also the need to report for management & for national audits.
There has been no real focus on who we serve, the patient, who is often thought of as secondary to IT with a bolt on "peek" at their record via a portal.
This leads to fragmented information, even within hospital organisations as various systems only pass on pockets of information & never the full picture.
There is also an expectation to keep a patient record view & the language the way clinical professionals work & expect patient to immediately understand.
What if in theory you gave the patient all of the data, all of the information so that they could use IT systems of their choice to display it together with other health information that they collect themselves. To also be able to pass on the pockets of information that their GP or specialist hospital needs, their information for their long term conditions so they manage it how they want to.
By focusing on the patient, IT systems would then start to be joined up, integrated care system.
It is not to say let the patient be responsible to keep all their data, but more & more patients are starting to want to keep their data & share it with whom they need to share it with together with their fitness apps, their dental record too.
Yes one day the patient will be holding the screen with the health professional looking keenly over their shoulder.
It might be too far fetched for most professionals, but if you are one of them, take a step back & think of all the benefits this will deliver changing the focus of healthcare IT.
& for those tempted to focus on the negative aspects, look at the younger generation & see what they currently do with technology.
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