Patients my age face bias from the NHS claims Bakewell, 85
JOAN Bakewell has claimed that discrimination in the NHS means older patients risk having to ‘ fend for themselves’.
The broadcaster was speaking after being denied a shingles vaccine and no longer being invited for regular mammograms.
She said older Britons did not want to ‘fall off the radar’.
Baroness Bakewell told ITV’s Peston on Sunday they should be told about available health treatments, expressing concern that younger people may be prioritised.
The 85-year- old, a former ‘older people’s tsar’ for the Labour government, said: ‘I went to my local clinic and said, “well, I’d like to have a mammogram again, I’ve been having them all my life and I’m staying healthy and I resolved to stay healthy” – and they said, “no, you don’t automatically get called in now, because you’re 70”.
‘I raised an eyebrow and they said, “You are eligible for a mammogram, you can have it, but you have to apply”.
‘Now we’re saying to people over 70 that, when your memory is getting less reliable, it’s up to you … that also happens to shingles.
‘There are now vaccines for people who are older, because there’s a risk of shingles that increases with age especially if you had chickenpox as a child, and I applied for that. “No, you aren’t eligible for shingles”.’
The Labour peer asked: ‘Is the health service saying, “Well, you know the old, they’ve had their lives, we’ve got bigger priorities … given the problems of our finances, we’d put the money with younger people rather than old” … is that what’s happening? In which case, the old are going to have to fend for themselves.’
All women aged 50 to 70 are invited for breast screening every three years in Britain.
But over-70s, although still at risk from cancer, are required to contact their local breast screening unit for continued appointments.
A trial is under way to examine whether the age limit should be extended to 73, despite concerns of overdiagnosis and women being treated unnecessarily for slow-growing tumours that might never have caused any problems. Shingles is a painful skin rash, causing extreme fatigue and blisters, which can cause pain for years and is fatal for one in 1,000 over-70s.
But the shingles vaccine is not available on the NHS for those aged 80 and over.
On the importance of preventing illness in old age, Baroness Bakewell added: ‘Believe me, when you’re over 70 it seems very important, and I know that that’s true of all my generation.
‘We’re eager to stay fit, we want help in doing it, but we don’t want to fall off the radar – we need to be told about these things.’
The broadcaster was speaking after the recent breast cancer scandal which meant up to 450,000 women were not invited for a breast cancer screening between 2009 and 2018. Asked if NHS ageism was a scandal, she said: ‘Well I’m not sure that it is yet but I’m eager to find out what is happening here to people over 70, over 80.
‘People are living into their nineties and we know the projections … they may have slowed but there are more older people, and they’re very concerned about their health. It will save the health service money if they avoid illness.’
A Public Health England spokesman said: ‘When advising NHS and government on eligible groups for NHS screening and immunisation … our advice is based on the best available clinical evidence, often provided by independent experts such as the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisations.’
‘Fall off the radar’