10.09.13
GPs should ‘keep tabs’ on elderly
Greater oversight of elderly patients could be included in the new GP contract, health secretary Jeremy Hunt has suggested.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, he suggested that many A&E staff know older patients better than their own doctors, and that GPs must improve the care they deliver.
He wrote: “We need a much better way for vulnerable old people to journey through the NHS. They need someone from the service to be keeping tabs on them and championing them through the system all the time – and making sure they're a name, not a number, whether or not they are in hospital.
“As a member of the public I would like that responsible person to be my GP – but of course they will need support from many others, including our dedicated district nurses.
“We also need to remove the cracks between the NHS and social care systems. GPs can't champion patients through the system unless they can work closely with care homes. Earlier this year we launched a £3.8bn merger of the NHS and social care systems to enable this to happen.”
Professor Clare Gerada, the outgoing chair of the Royal College of GPs, who is soon to take on a role transforming GP services in London, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the GP contract was much less of an issue than under-staffing. She said 10,000 more GPs are needed, but agreed they should play a bigger role in older patients’ care.
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