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

doi:10.1136/bmj.323.7308.337

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Paul V Knight, policy committee chairman

British Geriatrics Society, London EC1M 4DN

EDITOR—Scotland'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 …