Professor David MelzerUniversity of Exeter Medical School

Elderly patients squeezed into window bays on hospital wardsElderly patients are being kept in cramped window bays on hospital wards that have no alarm bells, proper curtains or lights, according

to the latest in a series of inspection reports. The Telegraph 14 Jul 2011Martin Beckford, Health Correspondent,

Organise urgent care better, NHS told

By Nick Triggle Health correspondent, BBC News The King's Fund review focussed on

how to reduce admissions and lengths of stay among patients needing urgent care 9

August 2012

Elderly people would need to spend less time in hospital if

care in England were better organised, experts say.

A review by the King's Fund found there was scope to reduce

the number of overnight stays by 2.3 million.

That would free up 7,000 beds - 6% of the total - saving the

NHS nearly £500m a year, according to the think-tank.

Elderly NHS patients' harrowing plight is revealed in reportSome elderly patients were given no help

to eat or left in urine-soaked clothes,

according to the health service ombudsman

Denis Campbell, health correspondent

The Guardian, Tuesday 15 February 2011

Thousands of patients leave hospital

malnourished

Almost 200,000 NHS patients left hospital

malnourished last year, it has emerged,

raising questions about food standards on

wards. Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor

22 Jan 2010

As a country, how successful has England and the UK been in preventing later life disease and disability?

How well are we delivering high quality medical treatments for the common disabling diseases of later life?

Section 1: Population, disease prevalenceSection 2: Health risks Section 3: Quality of care for common conditionsSection 4: Older people’s experiences

Our focus prevention or treatment of common conditions

Having a clear connection to the well-being of older people

Based on substantial research

Representative of large segments of the ageing population

Based on reliable, preferably nationwide data

Easy to understand by a wide range of audiences

Balanced, so that no single area dominates the report

Source data: General Lifestyle Survey, ONS 201151

Figure 20: Smoking trends in men and women aged 50+ years, England, 1974 - 2009

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Perc

enta

ge sm

okin

g cig

arett

es

Year

Men 50-59Men 60 and overWomen 50-59Women 60 and over

heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, arthritis or dementia ELSA study 2009

Common mental health disorders in the community

6.8

3.9 3.8

98.6

7.2

2.7 2.92.2

5.5

3.62.9

1.50.4 0.5

2.21.6

2.1

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

55-64 65-74 75+ 55-64 65-74 75+

MEN WOMEN

Perc

enta

ge

Age group

Mixed anxiety and depressive disorderGeneralised anxiety disorderDepressive episode

Source data: Adult Psychiatric Morbidity in England, 2007: Results of a household survey16. Copyright © 2011, Re-used with the permission of The Health and Social Care Information

Centre. All rights reserved

Prevalence of common mental health disorders in the past week in men and women aged 55 + years, England, 2007

category Number of indicators

% achieved

General medical 17 74%

Older people (geriatric) 15 57%

Screening and prevention 5 80%

Diagnosis 6 60%

Treatment follow-up 21 64%

~80% say they know most of what they need to know, but:

AgeUK advocacy

Updated web resource on quality of care for older people

Study of the oldest old: ◦ GP & hospital data on centenarians etc◦ Prescribing

Monitor key quality areas over time

Advice to people to help with quality? ◦ E.g. AHRQ “20 tips to reduce medical errors”

◦ 1. Make sure that all of your doctors know about every medicine you are taking. 

◦ 19. If you have a test, do not assume that no news is good news.