The health service ombudsman highlighted the problems faced by disabled and elderly people in accessing National Health Service funding for long-term care. She called for national guidelines to assess eligibility for long-term care funding, in order to end the 'hit and miss' process that people faced.
Source: NHS Funding for Long Term Care: Follow up report, HC 144 (2004-2005), Health Service Ombudsman for England, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report (pdf) | Ombudsman press release | Guardian report | Community Care report
Date: 2004-Dec
A report summarized progress by Strategic Health Authorities in establishing an integrated set of eligibility criteria for National Health Service continuing healthcare, and in reviewing cases where people might have been denied continuing care. The government announced that it had commissioned a new national framework for assessing fully funded NHS continuing care.
Source: Melanie Henwood, Continuing Health Care: Review, revision and restitution, Department of Health (08701 555455) | Press release 9 December 2004, Department of Health (020 7210 4850)
Links: Summary (pdf) | DH press release | NHS Ombudsman press release | Alzheimer's Society press release | Community Care report
Date: 2004-Dec
A think-tank report said that the government s approach to helping older people with long-term health conditions stay out of hospital was welcome: but the National Health Service should proceed with caution in introducing new case management initiatives, since evidence on their effectiveness was weak.
Source: Ruth Hutt, Rebecca Rosen and Janet McCauley, Case-Managing Long-Term Conditions: What impact does it have in the treatment of older people?, King s Fund (020 7307 2591)
Links: Report (pdf) | KF press release
Date: 2004-Nov
A report said that older people were healthier, more active and longer-lived than ever before, and were more likely to stop smoking and take advantage of health screening and immunization to stay healthy. But services needed to continue to improve and expand to meet the needs of an increasingly ageing population. A think tank warned that further progress could be hampered if funding were diverted from the intermediate care services (that had greatly reduced delayed discharges) into new services for improving care for older people with long-term conditions.
Source: Better Health in Old Age, Department of Health (08701 555455) | Press release 2 November 2004, King s Fund (020 7307 2400)
Links: Report (pdf) | DH press release | King's Fund press release | CSP press release | Age Concern press release | Help the Aged press release | Guardian report
Date: 2004-Nov
A report reviewed the nature and scope of the evidence base around depression and older people; evaluated current policy and practice responses; and identified gaps in the evidence base and areas for further work. It said that older people with depressive disorders were largely invisible within health and care services, and that many failed to seek or receive effective treatment.
Source: Mary Godfrey with Tracy Denby, Depression and Older People: Towards securing well-being in later life, Policy Press, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Summary
Date: 2004-Nov
A report highlighted practice that had been found to work well in health and social care services for older people. Topics included reimbursement, commissioning, discharge planning and partnership working.
Source: Changing Times: Improving services for older people - Report on the work of the Health and Social Care Change Agent Team 2003/04, Department of Health (08701 555455)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2004-Sep
A survey (for the Saga organization) looked at the key factors most valued in hospital services by people aged over 50, including waiting times, hospital experience and successful treatment. It concluded that the vast majority of hospitals in England and Wales needed to do more to improve services for the over-50s.
Source: The Guardian, 20 September 2004
Links: Guardian report | Saga Magazine
Date: 2004-Sep
A coalition of 20 charities and patient groups launched a manifesto aimed at securing better care for the 17 million people living with long-term chronic conditions. The manifesto called for a shift in focus away from emergency care and waiting lists, towards the care and support of those with long-term conditions.
Source: 17 Million Reasons: Improving the lives of people with long-term conditions, NHS Confederation (020 7959 7272) and 19 other organizations
Links: Manifesto (pdf) | NHS Confederation press release | Guardian report
Date: 2004-Sep
A new book challenged the belief that health expenditures would rise in direct proportion to the average age of populations. An analysis of English data showed that proximity to death was a much stronger predictor of future hospital expenditure than age alone. Additional years of life were lived in health, not disability.
Source: Meena Seshamani, The Impact of Ageing on Health Care Expenditure: Impending crisis or misguided concern?, Office of Health Economics (020 7930 9203)
Links: Briefing (pdf)
Date: 2004-Aug
A report examined the integration of assessment and care management in mental health services for older people. It included a review of policy in the area.
Source: Jayne Lingard and Alisoun Milne, Integrating Older People s Mental Health Services: Community mental health teams for older people, National Institute for Mental Health in England (0113 254 5000)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2004-Jun
Researchers found that the use of acute hospital services did not increase with age. They analysed hospital death statistics for 1999-2000 to examine whether use of hospital services in the three years before death varied with age. A second study found 'compelling evidence' that proximity to death, rather than age, was the main demographic driver of rising healthcare costs.
Source: Tracy Dixon, Mary Shaw, Stephen Frankel and Shah Ebrahim, 'Hospital admissions, age, and death: retrospective cohort study', British Medical Journal, 16 April 2004 | Meena Seshamania, and Alastair Gray, 'Ageing and health-care expenditure: the red herring argument revisited', Health Economics, Issue 13
Links: BMJ article (pdf) | BMJ press release | Health Economics article (pdf)
Date: 2004-Apr
Researchers found that 56 per cent of the population would prefer to die at home, yet only 20 per cent of people did so because home deaths required carers and patients to be well supported by professionals in order for them to be achievable.
Source: Iona Joy and Sarah Sandford, Caring about Dying: Palliative care and support for the terminally ill, New Philanthropy Capital (0207 401 8080)
Links: Summary (pdf) | Guardian report
Date: 2004-Mar
The Health Ombudsman reportedly upheld (in an unpublished decision) a complaint that a National Health Service trust, by denying nursing care support to someone caring for a sufferer from Alzheimer's Disease, had misapplied its local eligibility criteria and Department of Health guidance, and had used assessment tools biased towards physical conditions and against care at home.
Source: Community Care, 12 February 2004
Links: Community Care report | Guardian report
Date: 2004-Feb
