Geriatric syndromes continue to be poorly managed and recognised

doi:10.1136/bmj.a892

Published 22 July 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a892
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a892

Letters

Geriatric medicine

Geriatric syndromes continue to be poorly managed and recognised

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

There is much common ground between the protagonists in thisslightly phoney war.¹ ² What the argument advanced by Denaroand Mudge lacks is a pragmatic appreciation of how things arerather than how they might ideally like them to be.

Purely age related admission criteria are rare these days, withgeriatricians selecting those with frailty, complexity, anddisability. More importantly, the aspiration that all staffworking with adult patients should have the requisite skillsis a noble one, but sadly a triumph of hope over experience.Geriatric syndromes continue to be poorly recognised and managed,attitudes to the care of older people to be poor, and the careof older people to have lower perceived status and value thanhigh tech medicine.

A gross disparity also exists in research funding, and the amountof training in geriatric medicine in both undergraduate andpostgraduate curriculums does not reflect the fact that . . . [Full text of this article]

David Oliver, senior lecturer, geriatric medicine

¹ School of Health and Social Care, University of Reading, Reading RG6 1HY

d.oliver@reading.ac.uk