‘A welcome with tea and cake’: Making the most of your care home GP

Aileen Jackson is a senior project manager for the dementia and diabetes programmes at the Health Innovation Network (HIN), the Academic Health Science Network for South London @hinsouthlondon

The Health Innovation Network (HIN) for South London like the BGS has an active programme to work with care homes to learn about, share and spread and adopt good practice in South London. During our last biannual care home forum we held a quick fire Q&A session led by two South London GPs Dr Nwakuru Nwaogwugwu and Dr Charles Gostling asking the question ’How do you get the best out of your care home GP?’ Everyone agreed that a good common denominator was to ensure that the GP was welcomed with tea and cake hopefully prepared and baked by the care home residents.  The forum then set to work on developing the basis for really useful HIN guide for care and nursing homes to get the most out of their GP. It was acknowledged by all that sometimes the GP care home relationship can be quite fractured due to genuine pressures on both GPs and the care home sector and the lively and interactive discussion provided a platform to discuss problems for GPs and care homes such as time constraints, a lack of confidence, training issues, external pressures and staff retention.

British Geriatrics Society comments on provision of GP services in Care Homes

Following today’s news that GP representatives of the British Medical Association have voted for a change in contractual arrangements, which may adversely affect their provision of services to care home residents, BGS President Professor David Oliver has made the following comments on behalf of the Society:

Working with GPs and Care Home staff to reduce emergency hospital admissions

The poster by R Lisk, K Yeong, A Nasim, B Mandal, R Nari, Z Dhakam can be found at the BGS Conference in the exhibition space at stand number 76.

Residents of Care Homes with Nursing tend to be frail, have multiple diagnoses and high levels of dependency.  This results in complex care needs. Many experience multiple admissions to hospital, often with long lengths of stay.

This initiative was aimed at reducing the number of emergency admissions to our Trust from local Care Homes with Nursing, by working in partnership with staff in the homes and local GPs.  The aim was to help provide more bespoke care for this vulnerable patient group, keeping them out of hospital whenever it was possible and appropriate to do so.  The project was also part of a Trust-wide response to the new emergency admission cap introduced through the National Operating Framework 2010/11.

Only a minority of stroke victims are being seen by doctors within the recommended timeframe

Despite the recent FAST awareness campaign, just 8% of high-risk patients surveyed attended clinic within 24 hours of symptom-onset

In a study, published in Age and Ageing, of over 270 patients newly diagnosed with minor strokes or transient ischaemic attack (TIA), only a minority sought medical help within the timeframe recommended by the Royal College of Physicians. This is despite the high profile FAST campaign, which was taking place at the time that the study was conducted.

Move Aside, Geriatrician!

Keith Miller is a GP in Leeds and a member of Leeds West Clinical Commissioning Group. He tweets at @keester76

We all know we have an ageing population. We stare with trepidation at the impending challenges of the ageing baby-boom generation, and the increasing numbers of people living with multiple long-term conditions. We also know that the NHS is developing through a time of unprecedented change, and the financial efficiencies it must realise require fundamental reorganisation of the way we have come to deliver services to our populations. Primary and community care are the answer.

Healthcare for UK care home residents is broken. How should we go about fixing it?

Adam Gordon is a Consultant and Honorary Associate Professor in Medicine of Older People based in Nottingham, UK.  He also edits this blog.

A lot of excellent practice takes place in care homes. This is contrary to the image portrayed in the lay media, where there seems to be near-universal agreement that long-term care in the UK is “broken”. The same media reveals less agreement about what aspects of long-term care, precisely, are broken.  Conversely, there is no shortage of suggestions about how one might go about fixing it.

Often overlooked in these discussions is the fact that healthcare provision to care home residents is the responsibility of the National Health Service.

Failure to meet the healthcare needs of residents must therefore reflect, to some extent, on the NHS and how it organises care for them.