Intermediate care is ageist

doi:10.1136/bmj.325.7362.495

BMJ 2002;325:495 ( 31 August )

Letters

Intermediate care is ageist

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

EDITOR $---$ With reference to the editorial by Pencheon, intermediate care is logical if you do not want people to go to hospital.¹Since there is no other avenue to obtain rapid assessment of patientsand access to diagnostic facilities, hospital remains the safestoption, provided that hospital is proactive with a rapid dischargepolicy. The problems general practitioners have in getting patientsadmitted, even as arranged admissions, will not be amelioratedby the small sums each primary care trust spends on intermediatecare.

When discussing which patients are suitable for intermediate care services, the inherent ageism within the NHS becomes apparent.A 75 year old patient who is unsteady and has a chest infectionis usually regarded as an ideal patient to manage in their ownhome environment. A 35 year old patient with pneumonia is regardedas an obvious hospitalcase.

It is the older patient, however, who is likely . . . [Full text of this article]