Professor David Melzer University of Exeter Medical School

Elderly patients squeezed into window bays on hospital wards Elderly patients are being kept in cramped window bays on hospital wards that have no alarm bells, proper curtains or lights, according to the latest in a series of inspection reports. The Telegraph 14 Jul 2011 Martin BeckfordMartin Beckford, Health Correspondent, Organise urgent care better, NHS told By Nick Triggle Health correspondent, BBC News The King's Fund review focussed on how to reduce admissions and lengths of stay among patients needing urgent care 9 August 2012 Elderly people would need to spend less time in hospital if care in England were better organised, experts say. A review by the King's Fund found there was scope to reduce the number of overnight stays by 2.3 million. That would free up 7,000 beds - 6% of the total - saving the NHS nearly £500m a year, according to the think-tank. Elderly NHS patients' harrowing plight is revealed in report Some elderly patients were given no help to eat or left in urine-soaked clothes, according to the health service ombudsman Denis CampbellDenis Campbell, health correspondent The GuardianThe Guardian, Tuesday 15 February 2011 Thousands of patients leave hospital malnourished Almost 200,000 NHS patients left hospital malnourished last year, it has emerged, raising questions about food standards on wards. Rebecca SmithRebecca Smith, Medical Editor 22 Jan 2010

 As a country, how successful has England and the UK been in preventing later life disease and disability?  How well are we delivering high quality medical treatments for the common disabling diseases of later life? Section 1:Population, disease prevalence Section 2:Health risks Section 3:Quality of care for common conditions Section 4:Older people’s experiences

Our focus  prevention or treatment of common conditions  Having a clear connection to the well-being of older people  Based on substantial research  Representative of large segments of the ageing population  Based on reliable, preferably nationwide data  Easy to understand by a wide range of audiences  Balanced, so that no single area dominates the report

Source data: General Lifestyle Survey, ONS Figure 20: Smoking trends in men and women aged 50+ years, England,

heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, arthritis or dementia ELSA study 2009

Common mental health disorders in the community Source data: Adult Psychiatric Morbidity in England, 2007: Results of a household survey 16. Copyright © 2011, Re-used with the permission of The Health and Social Care Information Centre. All rights reserved 16 Prevalence of common mental health disorders in the past week in men and women aged 55 + years, England, 2007

categoryNumber of indicators % achieved General medical1774% Older people (geriatric)1557% Screening and prevention580% Diagnosis660% Treatment follow-up2164%

~80% say they know most of what they need to know, but:

 AgeUK advocacy  Updated web resource on quality of care for older people  Study of the oldest old: ◦ GP & hospital data on centenarians etc ◦ Prescribing  Monitor key quality areas over time  Advice to people to help with quality? ◦ E.g. AHRQ “20 tips to reduce medical errors” ◦ 1. Make sure that all of your doctors know about every medicine you are taking. ◦ 19. If you have a test, do not assume that no news is good news.