Commissioning

Despite geriatric medicine being one of the largest medical specialties in the UK, a majority of older people in hospital or community care aren't under the direct care of a geriatrician. There simply aren't enough of them to go around. Could Advanced Clinical or Nurse Practitioners support our growing number of frail patients?

The role of geriatricians and specialist health care professionals starts with identifying the care and treatment that best suits an older person’s individual needs and wishes, writes Eileen Burns, welcoming Independent Age’s new project, Doing care differently. 

Care homes routinely feature in the press and not always for the right reasons. Sadly the negative stories do little to help us all promote the amazing work that is being done with people who live in care homes up and down the country.

Benchmarking – where multiple providers compare their performance and practices using standardised measures – can provide a useful starting point for a processes of continual quality improvement and assurance in care homes, writes Adam Gordon.

Liz Charalambous gives a personal opinion, reflecting on the seventieth anniversary of the BGS.

Seeing different European countries’ responses to an ageing population is an invaluable opportunity to learn and share innovation. As part of Health Education East Midlands’ Quality Improvement Fellowship, Barry Evans and Rachel Cowan were recently able to set up an exchange between the UK and the Netherlands for geriatricians in training.

Diogenes syndrome is a disorder characterized by self-neglect, squalor, apathy, hoarding and lack of shame. A person with Diogenes syndrome is intelligent but aggressive, stubborn, suspicious and emotionally labile. There are similarities between the NHS and Diogenes, thinks Adhi V Adhiyaman.

The BGS calls for everyone who commissions or provides healthcare in care homes to follow the principles of good practice set out in the guidance published today.

Eileen Burns looks forward to the BGS Autumn Meeting on 23 November 2016.