Page 3 - Hospital Authority Convention 2017

Plenary Sessions
Plenary Sessions

P2.1 Elderly Services 13:15 Convention Hall B

How to Tackle the Challenges of the Ageing Population
Oliver D
Care Quality Improvement Department, Royal College of Physicians, UK HOSPITAL AUTHORITY CONVENTION 2017
Population ageing is a cause for celebration. It represents a victory for better societal conditions; better preventative and
public health; better treatment for long-term conditions and more effective interventions in acute illness and injury. Most
importantly, it offers all of us a better chance of a longer and healthier life.

Although many people age well into later life without serious ill-health or disability, the higher proportion of older people in
society means a change in population health. In turn our health services and systems need to adapt to be fit for the older
population now using them most frequently.

As they age people are more likely to live with multiple long-term conditions including frailty, dementia and age-related
disability. In turn they are more likely to be on multiple medications. They are more likely to rely on paid care workers or
unpaid family caregivers. They are more likely to enter hospitals, or enter nursing or residential homes and to consult primary
care clinicians and more likely to require end-of-life care. They also tend to see more different professionals and transition
between different services, in turn leading to poorly co-ordinated care, often compounded by ageist attitudes or service
models designed for younger people with single diseases. (NHS Confederation 2016)

Our services need to change to reflect the needs of the older people now using them and especially those with frailty, multi-
morbidity and dementia, to support their caregivers and to focus more on proactive care and prevention to reduce crises and
enable them to stay at home for longer. https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/outputs/future-hospital-commission

Finally, the skills, training, values and planning of our workforce need to reflect the fact that in modern healthcare, older
people are “core business”. Tuesday, 16 May

References:
Making health and care systems fit for an ageing population, Kings Fund 2014 Oliver D, Foot C, Humphries R.
“Growing old together”– NHS Confederation 2016
Future Hospital Commission – https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/outputs/future-hospital-commission - RCP website

P2.2 Elderly Services 13:15 Convention Hall B

Hospital Design in the Context of an Ageing Population: Case Studies Rural NSW
Ballantyne D
Health Infrastructure, NSW Health, Australia

The development of Multipurpose Services (MPS) commenced in NSW in the early 1990s to enable sustainable hospital,
medical, aged care or community services, to meet the needs of rural and remote communities across NSW.

The model tailors healthcare needs for the local community by integrating health, aged care services, and emergency and
urgent care services, to provide flexible health service delivery – from primary healthcare to acute and residential aged care.
MPS facilities are a key component in providing integrated healthcare across Local Health Districts and the greater NSW
Health system. They work alongside other healthcare facilities to deliver the best services possible, including Community
Health Services, District Hospital, Regional Health Services and Metropolitan Teaching or Tertiary Hospitals.

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