Elderly patients ‘age ten years in ten days’

ELDERLY patients who are ‘trapped’ in hospital age ten years in ten days, a top health official has warned.

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

He added that the NHS must do more to prevent patients becoming ill – such as by ensuring their homes are warm.

Professor Powis, 57, medical director of NHS England, said that when the NHS was set up 70 years ago, it was mainly treating working-age patients with one-off illnesses. Now it is primarily looking after older patients with 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 one-off 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. 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.’

Professor Powis also called for the NHS and social care services to treat patients’ ‘complete needs’. He said: ‘Single, multidisciplinary care teams – GPs, nurses, mental health, social care, therapists – are being created to help people avoid crises and stem rising emergency hospital admissions.

‘If admitted, care teams work proactively to help people get home and avoid them getting trapped.’