BMJ 2001;323:337 ( 11 August )

Letters

Is the NHS guilty of ageism by not giving free personal care for some older people in England?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITORScotland's first minister has announced that he intends to implement free personal care in nursing homes for older people by April 2002.¹ But the prime minister seems to believe that there are better things to spend money on in the English NHS. He overlooks the fact that the NHS Plan for England explicitly claims that it will eradicate ageism in the NHS.

Older people need personal care, not because they are old but because they have acquired disabling disease in old age. Thus the central tenets of the NHS would seem to be broken if older people do not receive the care they need, just because they are old. If this is a form of rationing then its criteria need to be made explicit. The current position that only care provided by registered nurses will be freely provided by the NHS is an inadequate basis on which to . . . [Full text of this article]

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This article has been cited by other articles:

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