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Showing results for tags 'Medicine - Geriatric'.
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Content ArticleThis blog calls for action on the careful review of established pain medication when a patient is admitted to hospital. Richard describes the experience of two elderly patients who suffered pain due to their long term medication being stopped when they were admitted to hospital. Pain control needs must not be ignored or undermined, there needs to be carer and patient involvement and their consent, and alternative pain control must be considered.
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- Patient harmed
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News Article
NHS ‘woefully unprepared’ for care of an ageing England
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The NHS is “flying blind” and “woefully unprepared” to cope with England’s rapidly ageing population, senior doctors have warned as stark new figures reveal the country has only one full-time geriatrician to care for every 8,000 older people. The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) said the drastic shortage of specially trained physicians to look after the rising number of elderly people and a lack of NHS workforce planning meant England was “sleepwalking into an avoidable crisis of care for older people”. Its analysis of NHS and Office for National Statistics data shows there is just one full-time geriatrician for every 8,031 people over the age of 65 in England. There are also regional disparities, with one geriatrician caring for more than 12,500 over-65s in the east Midlands, while the figure in north-east and central London is one per 3,254. Estimates suggest that by 2040 there could be as many as 17 million over-65s. But the college warns that many doctors will soon be requiring geriatric care themselves as 48% of consultant geriatricians are due to retire within the next decade. The RCP said the health service was short of staff across all specialities and the shortage of geriatricians was one example of why the health service needed more workforce planning. It said there was no publicly available data on the number of staff the NHS needed to train now to meet future demand for care. Dr Jennifer Burns, the president of the British Geriatrics Society, said the crisis would only worsen with the “predictable rise” in the numbers of older people across the country. “It is absolutely vital that these fundamental issues around the recruitment, retention, development and support of the workforce are addressed, and that there is a properly resourced strategy for future needs,” she said. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 3 March 2022- Posted
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- Workforce management
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Content ArticleIn this video interview, consultant geriatrician Dr Elena Mucci talks about patient safety in geriatrics and end of life care. She describes the importance of: taking a whole-person approach to caring for older people reviewing medications regularly equipping patients to manage their own health. engaging patients and their families in planning for end of life care at an early stage Elena also explains how she is sharing these messages with both patients and healthcare professionals.
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- Older People (over 65)
- Medicine - Geriatric
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Content Article
CPOC: Perioperative care of people living with frailty
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Surgery
Frailty is a condition characterised by loss of biological reserve, failure of physiological mechanisms and vulnerability to a range of adverse outcomes including increased risk of morbidity, mortality and loss of independence in the perioperative period. With the increasing recognition of the prevalence of frailty in the surgical population and the impact on postoperative outcomes, The Centre for Perioperative Care (CPOC) and the British Geriatrics Society (BGS) have worked together to develop a whole pathway guideline on perioperative care for people living with frailty undergoing elective and emergency surgery. The scope of this guideline covers all aspects of perioperative care relevant to adults living with frailty undergoing elective and emergency surgery. It is written for healthcare professionals involved in delivering care throughout the pathway, as well as for patients and their carers, managers and commissioners.- Posted
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Content ArticleGetting It Right First Time (GIRFT) is designed to improve the quality of care within the NHS by reducing unwarranted variations. By tackling variations in the way services are delivered across the NHS, and by sharing best practice between trusts, GIRFT identifies changes that will help improve care and patient outcomes, as well as delivering efficiencies such as the reduction of unnecessary procedures and cost savings.
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Content ArticleA key piece of guidance aiming to support hospital teams in their work to improve care of older people living with frailty is now available, in a collaboration between Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) and the British Geriatrics Society (BGS). The guidance is designed to accompany the new GIRFT Hospital Acute Care Frailty Pathway, and offers detailed measures teams should take to improve care and reduce hospital-acquired dependency for those living with frailty, as well as stressing that interventions should be monitored and linked more widely to community-based services.
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- Older People (over 65)
- Community care
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Content ArticleNational audits, such as the National Emergency Laparotomy Audit (NELA), are a powerful tool. They allow us to see what is happening to our ‘real-life’ patients, to identify gaps in our local services, to see which hospitals are doing best and to share best practice. This learning informs guidelines and pathways such as ‘The High-Risk Surgical Patient’ and the forthcoming international enhanced recovery programmes for emergency laparotomy. The linking of good practice with a financial incentive, the Best Practice Tariff, has also acted as a carrot for hospitals to support funding for new models of care. Previously we have seen how audit, linked with guidelines and associated financial incentives, has improved outcomes in hip fracture and now it is encouraging to observe similar results in emergency laparotomy. In this blog, Dr Jugdeep Dhesi, Consultant Geriatrician and Deputy Director for the Centre of Perioperative Care, discusses NELA and older patients, and how we must deliver patient-centred rather than surgical-speciality based pathways and to ensure the best outcomes for all of our patients.
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- Audit
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Content Article
Rockwood Clinical Frailty Scale
Claire Cox posted an article in Older people
Frailty is a distinctive health state related to the ageing process in which multiple body systems gradually lose their in-built reserves. Around 10% of people aged over 65 years have frailty, rising to between a quarter and a half of those aged over 85 years. Older people living with frailty are at risk of adverse outcomes such as dramatic changes in their physical and mental well being after an apparently minor event which challenges their health, such as an infection or new medication. The Rockwood Frailty scale is a tool to aid clinicians in assessing frailty in adults.