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Monday, 26 December 2005 10:14 | BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk
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Scotland's health service watchdog has found that the number of elderly "revolving door patients", those repeatedly admitted to hospital, has increased by more than a quarter in a decade.
The watchdog have raised fears that many pensioners are being ejected from hospital beds before proper measures have been put in place to look after them in the community.
Liz Duncan, of Help the Aged in Scotland, said: "There does seem to be, for all categories of patients, as fast as possible turnaround from hospital treatment to going home. Sometimes for older people in particular it is a difficult situation, because if the home support is not absolutely in place and if they are not completely well, they could have a relapse at home.
"You can have this kind of revolving door of admissions if all the conditions, including home support, are not correctly in place”.
The report, compiled by NHS Quality Improvement Scotland, revealed the number of pensioners discharged from hospital only to be readmitted within a year has increased by 26% since 1994-5.
The proportion of over-65s admitted to hospital twice or more in a year has risen from 354 per 10,000 in 1994-5 to 447 per 10,000 in 2003-4. Among the over-85s, the increase is even more marked, with the rate of men experiencing multiple admissions growing from 853 per 10,000 in 1994-5 to 1058 per 10,000 in 2003-4.
Joe Campbell, chairman of Scottish Care, which represents independent care home owners, said: “The problem came down to money if older patients are being put out of hospitals quicker than they should because of the backlog of routine operations which need performing, they have got to have care . . . But the big problem is if they require care they need to get it either from the council or independent care-at-home suppliers. Where is the money for that? There is no money”.
Dr David Stewart, consultant in geriatric medicine in Glasgow and deputy secretary of the British Geriatrics Society in Scotland, said: "Really the question is what percentage of these people came back for completely unpreventable reasons. The answer is, we do not know. There is a percentage where we could perhaps have done a bit better”.
The Scottish Executive has set a target to reduce multiple admissions among the elderly by more than 20% by April 2009.
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