More resources are required to facilitate the discharge of acutely ill elderly people

EDITOR,—Richard Hobbs's editorial on the increase in emergency admissions draws attention to an important trend, which, as he states, should be the subject of urgent research to see exactly what is happening and why.1 It is surprising that he does not mention demographic changes leading to relative increases in the numbers of very elderly people as these changes are likely to be one important reason for the rising rates of emergency admissions. Unfortunately, in advance of any results from research he suggests solutions that are born of political correctness rather than reasoned …