Older people and the "patient centred" NHS: Proactive support in primary care can avert admissions

doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7435.350-b

BMJ 2004;328:350 (7 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7435.350-b

Letter

Older people and the "patient centred" NHS

Proactive support in primary care can avert admissions

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

EDITOR—Rowland and Pollock's editorial induces reflectionon the consequences to the NHS and social services of patientsadmitted into secondary care in less than ideal circumstances.¹In primary care such patients are recognised as on the brinkof coping with chronic illness, increasing frailty, and confusion.In an increasingly mobile society many have no one close tothem to offer support in precarious circumstances. Choice forsuch patients is indeed presented as an obstacle to the efficientfunctioning of the system that purports to protect them fromdestitution.

Our team recently reported a study seeking to identify suchpatients in primary care and offer them additional support,particularly over winter.² The data suggest that such patientscan be identified and worked with proactively to reduce potentialadmission to hospital and an uncertain future. However, theeffort of the primary healthcare team must be concerted. Itrequires visits, calls, . . . [Full text of this article]

Moyez Jiwa, lead research fellow

University of Sheffield, Institute of General Practice, Community Sciences Centre, Northern General Hospital, Sheffield S5 7AU m.jiwa@sheffield.ac.uk

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us Add to Digg

Digg

StumbleUpon Add to Technorati

Technorati What's this?

Relevant Article

Choice and responsiveness for older people in the "patient centred" NHS: David R Rowland and Allyson M Pollock
BMJ 2004 328: 4-5. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]