Share skills to help elderly to live well

Dr Chan Hon-wai, Felix
Consultant (Medicine and Geriatrics) /
Hong Kong West Cluster Clinical Stream Coordinator (Medical)
Tung Wah Group of Hospitals Fung Yiu King Hospital

Over the 30 years of practice in the medical field, Dr Felix Chan has been holding on to his belief, ‘to love others’ elderly as you would love your own’. These inspirational words are also what he has been sharing with young doctors in daily ward round or weekly multidisciplinary ward round. He explains that the elderly are comparatively less expressive and often feel burdened as they are losing their self-care ability. Therefore, a geriatrician should treat them with love and patience like our loved ones.

Dr Chan adds, apart from medical care, nursing, rehabilitation and personal care, psychological support is also crucial to elderly patients. While many people may have a view that hospital is the most suitable place for elderly care, ageing in place should be the best arrangement for the elderly instead. In light of this, he has been pushing forward the provision of geriatric services in the community, for example, the Community Geriatric Assessment (CGAT) in residential care homes for elderly (RCHEs), and services for patients with special conditions like Dementia Community Support Scheme for dementia patients. To promote the concept of ‘good death’, the End-of-Life Programme provides medical support for patients in RCHEs, so that they could live with their family in a comfortable environment at the end stage of life while avoiding unnecessary hospitalisation and resuscitation.

In hindsight, Dr Chan, who will retire soon, hopes that more young doctors will practise geriatrics and more spiritual support can be offered to the elderly. To cope with the ageing population, the development of geriatrics should exceed the provision of treatment and enhancement of hospital facilities. Promoting collaboration with the community partners would facilitate provision of quality services to the elderly patients and achieving the goal of ‘treat the body, heal the mind, save the soul’.