Health and social care policy

Much has been written about the need for healthcare systems to adapt to meet the growing demands associated with demographic changes and an ageing population worldwide. For this to truly happen, we need a culture change, says Diarmuid O’Shea, Consultant Geriatrician at St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin.

A study published in Age and Ageing, the scientific journal of the BGS, reports that the number of older people diagnosed with four or more diseases will double between 2015 and 2035.

Diarmuid O’Shea and Carmel Hoey look at the importance of Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment in Ireland as they seek to modernise the model of care in the Republic, in the face of the challenge of an ageing population.

Baroness Sally Greengross considers what the economic and societal effects of a global ageing society will be and says there's an increasing need for healthy older people to be employed into their seventies. She argues that the global phenomenon of ageing is not all bad news.

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.

Vicky Gibson's thoughts on the future of the profession of geriatric medicine and the Association for Elderly Medicine Education (AEME), founded in 2012, by a group of trainee geriatricians with the aim of improving elderly medicine education and promoting uptake into the specialty.

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.

BGS president Eileen Burns attended and spoke at a Global Summit on Ageing held in Shanghai in 2016. Here she reflects on the conference, the economics of ageing which was discussed, and Chinese attitudes to health and care.