Use tech to let elderly live longer say Lords
BRITAIN needs to stay a world leader in drug development and medical tech if people are to have longer, healthier lives, says a House of Lords report.
The Government has missed its target of ensuring Britons will have five extra years of healthy life by 2035.
And the pandemic has highlighted gaps in health policies, warned the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee.
For women, the study found healthy life expectancy has decreased in the past decade, while for men improvements in healthy ageing have slowed.
Covid-19 has shown how the “fragmentation of care contributes in many cases to even poorer health in older age”, said the report which follows a probe into healthy ageing.
It said increasing numbers of people
have multiple health conditions which the NHS was not designed to tackle.
Treatment and care is not always well co-ordinated for older people, particularly those with several chronic illnesses, said the Lords committee.
Recommendations includes pensioners having a designated doctor or nurse to coordinate treatment.
Older people should be more frequently included in clinical trials and there should be more trials which target multiple conditions.
Lord Patel, chair of the Science and Technology Committee, said: “The Government needs to promote lifestyle changes. It must increase support for exciting scientific research that targets the underlying processes of ageing.
“Treatments are being developed that could improve health without the need to treat multiple illnesses.”