Primary and Community Care

Our team’s vision is to work in a proactive manner and identify patients living with moderate frailty who have unmet medical and social needs. Often, we find catching potential problems at a moderate frailty stage can significantly improve a patient’s quality of life and optimise their healthcare.

An award-winning paper published in Age and Ageing provides vital evidence for use by decision makers in the design, planning and provision of healthcare services for older people. Here two of the authors of the paper share their summary of the findings.

In case you missed it, June of this year saw the publication of ‘My Health, My Care, My Home – healthcare framework for adults living in care homes’. The framework was developed by Scottish Government working with care providers and representative bodies, health and social care practitioners, Health and Social Care Partnerships, policymakers and families and friends.

It was a crisp, cold December morning in London and my colleague and I were visiting Ethel, an 85-year-old woman who had been very difficult to contact as she is hearing impaired, has no next of kin and does not own a mobile or landline.

One of the joys of general practice is seeing the same patients over time and getting to know them and their families. I worked in the same small practice for over twenty years and saw people go from active sixty-somethings, slowing down in their seventies, and then becoming frail in their eighties.

Across the UK, our National Health Service is facing huge challenges. There are unprecedented delays for ambulances and waits in emergency departments.

Falls Prevention Awareness week is a national health campaign to raise awareness of falls health and injury prevention. Across the UK there will be an abundance of seminars, conferences and many discussions will be had.

I knocked on the door. From behind the entrance Alan appeared weary and yet relieved to see a familiar face. I sat down with him and revisited our meeting a week prior when he came to see me complaining of widespread joint pain and weight loss for which no cause had been identified by the hospital specialists.

With the national agenda to create virtual wards has come an increasing demand to develop Hospital at Home (hospital@home, H@H) services. Guys and St Thomas’ H@H, operational since 2014, “takes the ward to the patient’s home”.

This is the ninth blog in the BGS’s ‘Timely Discharge’ series. We aim to raise awareness of the detrimental effects on older people of being stuck in hospital when they are 'medically fit for discharge'. Our blog series explores the causes of delayed discharges, the knock-on effects to the wider health and social care system, and what needs to change.

This is the eighth blog in the BGS’s ‘Timely Discharge’ series. We aim to raise awareness of the detrimental effects on older people of being stuck in hospital when they are 'medically fit for discharge'. Our blog series explores the causes of delayed discharges, the knock-on effects to the wider health and social care system, and what needs to change.

This is the seventh blog in the BGS’s ‘Timely Discharge’ series. We aim to raise awareness of the detrimental effects on older people of being stuck in hospital when they are 'medically fit for discharge'. Our blog series explores the causes of delayed discharges, the knock-on effects to the wider health and social care system, and what needs to change.

This is the third blog in the BGS’s ‘Timely Discharge’ series. We aim to raise awareness of the detrimental effects on older people of being stuck in hospital when they are 'medically fit for discharge'. Our blog series explores the causes of delayed discharges, the knock-on effects to the wider health and social care system, and what needs to change.

This is the second blog in the BGS’s ‘Timely Discharge’ series. We aim to raise awareness of the detrimental effects on older people of being stuck in hospital when they are 'medically fit for discharge'. Our blog series explores the causes of delayed discharges, the knock-on effects to the wider health and social care system, and what needs to change.

This year’s theme for the International Day of Older Persons is digital equity for all ages. This is timely given the acceleration of the use of digital communications and services during the pandemic and the risks that some people, particularly older people, could be left behind.

Last week I was called by the ambulance team who were at the house of John, who had advanced dementia, had not been eating and drinking well for about a month and had fallen today.

Those of us working a lot with care homes have been involved in implementing the Enhanced Health in Care Homes Directed Enhanced Service (EHCH DES) that came into effect last year.

When my team received National Institute for Health Research funding for ‘Understanding stakeholders’ perspectives on implementing deprescribing in care homes’ (or STOPPING) study in 2019, we were looking forward to 2020.

With over 69 million reported cases of COVID-19 worldwide, we have all experienced rapid and dramatic changes to our healthcare services over the last 12 months. Older people have been disproportionately affected by a greater severity of disease and mortality, detrimental psychological, cognitive and physical outcomes from necessary social distancing, as well as age discrimination. 

Care closer to home is a familiar term for geriatricians. Emergency attendance and acute hospital admissions have been steadily rising over the last 10 years and this, coupled with a reduction in inpatient beds across acute and community sectors, has led to challenges in managing capacity in many acute Trusts.

When I commenced my Clinical Lead role at the Royal British Legion in January of this year, one of the first challenges presented to me by my team was to sample a ‘puréed meal’ in one of our care homes.