Elderly age ten years in ten days when they are stuck in hospital

ELDERLY patients who are ‘trapped’ in hospital age ten years in ten days, the NHS’s new medical director has warned.

Professor Stephen Powis said that the biggest challenge for the health service was to improve the care of the ageing population.

He also said the NHS must do more to prevent patients becoming ill in the first place – such as by ensuring their homes are warm.

Powis, 57, became medical director of NHS England in January after Professor Sir Bruce Keogh retired.

He pointed out that when the NHS was first set-up 70 years ago, it was mainly treating working-age patients with one-off illnesses.

Now it is primarily looking after much older patients with one or more long term conditions.

‘A person over 80 who spends ten days in hospital loses 10 per cent of muscle mass, equivalent to ten years of ageing,’ he wrote in the Daily Telegraph. ‘The NHS’s biggest task this century must be to adapt to profound shifts in patterns of ill health.

‘When it was founded in 1948, it was principally dealing with working-age populations requiring oneoff treatments. Today, people are living ten years longer on average.

‘They are also spending more years in ill health. Between 2015 and 2035, the number of older people with four or more diseases will double and a third of these will have mentally ill health.

‘The NHS of the future also needs to be proactive on prevention, and empowering rather than paternalistic in helping people look after themselves. For example, by joining forces with local government to keep houses warm, safe and dry, the NHS can reduce lung and heart disease, saving £70 for every £1 spent.’ Powis also called for the NHS and social care services to treat patients’ ‘complete needs’, rather than separate parts of the body in isolation.

He highlighted Frimley in Surrey, where GPs, nurses and care staff work to prevent the elderly becoming ill and needing to go to hospital.

He said: ‘Single multi-disciplinary care teams – GPs, nurses, mental health, social care, therapists – are being created to help people avoid crises and stem rising emergency hospital admissions for the first time in years.

‘Where people do arrive at A&E, doctors there get help to find solutions that prevent unnecessary hospital stays. If admitted, care teams work proactively to help people get home and avoid them getting trapped.’

This Summer the Health and Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt will set out how the Government plans to care for the growing elderly population.

Crucially, this will also explain how the care will be funded – and this could be through higher taxes.