Person-centred care in a sustainable system

Dr Eileen Burns has been a geriatrician in Leeds since 1992 and is President of the BGS. She is currently Clinical Lead for integration in Leeds. She tweets @EileenBurns13 This blog originally appeared as part of Independent Age’s Doing Care Differently series. You can join the debate here.

We warmly welcome Independent Age’s new project, Doing care differently. Our members are passionate advocates for person-centred care. The role of geriatricians and specialist health care professionals starts with identifying the care and treatment that best suits an older person’s individual needs and wishes, and those of their families and carers.  Delays in access to social care, and also in intermediate care, for example, occupational and physio therapy, create unnecessary barriers to person centred care, leading to poorer health outcomes, an increased likelihood of presenting at A&E, and people having to stay on acute hospital wards for longer than necessary.  For older people with frailty the negative impact when this occurs is significant, and their health deteriorates with every additional day spent on an acute hospital ward.

Autumn Speakers Series: Is it just me… or have we listened and changed?

Sharon Blackburn has worked in the independent care sector for over 28 years, having previously spent 10 years in the NHS in a variety of roles. Sharon is currently Policy and Communications Director for the National Care Forum. She was awarded an CBE in the 2016 New Year’s Honours for services to nursing and the not-for-profit care sector. She tweets at @NCFSharon She will be speaking at the upcoming BGS Autumn Meeting in London.

Care Homes routinely feature in the press and not always for the right reasons. Sadly the negative experiences and stories do little to help us all promote the amazing work that is being done with people who live in care homes up and down the country. Instead it feeds peoples’ already distorted views and understanding, including those of professionals. Andrea Sutcliffe, Chief Inspector for adult social care at the Care Quality Commission (CQC) talks about the ‘mum’ test – “would this service be good enough for my mum?” I would suggest the ‘mum’ test needs to be more up close and personal… “would this service be acceptable to me”?

BGS Election Manifesto

Caroline Cooke is Policy Manager at BGS.  Here she explains why BGS has published its own election manifesto, what it says and how you can get involved. 

The 2017 General Election offers an opportunity to promote the issues that most affect the healthcare of older people across the UK.  By publishing our own manifesto we are helping to raise awareness and understanding among key opinion-formers and decision-makers, including parliamentary candidates, of the work of BGS and the unique expertise of our members.  It is also a way of demonstrating that BGS will be working to influence policy development after the election. 

The British Geriatrics Society calls for a lasting solution to the crisis in social care

The British Geriatrics Society welcomes any additional funding for social care. But we are concerned that the use of funding from increases in council tax and from funds generated by the New Homes Bonus scheme, announced today by Communities Secretary Sajid Javid, fails to address the urgent need for a more lasting solution to the crisis in social care funding.

In response to the announcement, Dr Eileen Burns, President of the British Geriatrics Society and a Clinical Director at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, commented:

“BGS welcomes any changes to funding of social care that help to address the current crisis that is having a direct impact on the healthcare of older people living with frailty – BGS members see the knock-on effects on a daily basis when older people present at A&E departments and when their discharge from hospital is a delayed because of a lack of capacity in the social care sector.