Purge of ‘drugs cosh’ care homes
A GENERATION of vulnerable pensioners are being sedated with a “chemical cosh” of unnecessary drugs, putting their lives at risk, experts warned last night.
Tens of thousands of elderly people in care homes are being prescribed at least seven different medications and given 10 or more drugs each day.
The NHS has announced plans to recruit and send hundreds of pharmacists to check care homes amid fears pensioners are being “kept quiet” under sedation.
NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens said: “There’s increasing evidence that our parents and their friends – a whole generation of people in their 70s, 80s and 90s – are being over medicated in care homes. The policy of ‘a pill for every ill’ is often causing frail older people more health problems than it’s solving.”
Eileen Chubb, director of the Compassion in Care charity, told the Daily Express: “A generation of elderly people are being put under a chemical cosh and because they are elderly they can’t clear the drugs from their systems. These build up in the system and you can end up with lethal doses.
“The people most at risk are the ones with least of a voice, such as people with dementia.
“Families should be asking their GPs for evidence that justifies their loved ones being given these drugs.”
The move comes amid fears care homes still use anti-psychotic drugs to quieten dementia patients, despite calls to cut their use.
NHS trials have shown that pharmacists can improve a patient’s quality of life by reducing unnecessary use of medicine, which also brings down emergency hospital admissions.
In East and North Hertfordshire, a pilot trial across 37 care homes found that an annual drug cost saving of £249 per patient and one hospital readmission could be avoided for every 12 people reviewed.
Sandra Gidley, of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s English Board, said: “This significant investment highlights the growing recognition that pharmacists who support care home residents can reduce medicine waste, improve efficiency and provide better health outcomes.”
THE issues facing the funding of social care are addressed on this page by Stephen Pollard. But there are many separate concerns about the treatment of people in care homes. Head of the NHS Simon Stevens has asked for pharmacists to carry out checks on homes because of fears that residents are being kept quiet and docile with a variety of chemical coshes.
These drugs are creating more medical problems than they are solving. And apart from that it is a lazy and inhumane way to carry on.