Loneliness; A public health epidemic

Helen Stokes-Lampard is Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), the UK’s largest Medical Royal College, representing over 52,000 family doctors across the UK. She is a part-time GP partner at The Westgate Practice in Lichfield, Staffordshire, and was the Head of Primary Care Teaching (undergraduate) in the Medical School of the University of Birmingham until becoming RCGP Chair. She will be speaking at the Loneliness in Older People and its Impact on Health event on 13 June at Wellcome Collection in London.

As a GP in the Midlands, I see patients in my surgery day after day with a variety of different health needs. We GPs are privileged to be the cornerstone of our communities, and the vast majority – over 85% of people – come to see their GP at least once a year.

Last year, at my speech to RCGP Annual Conference, I introduced the world to my patient, Enid, a character who every GP will recognise from their own surgery and their own community. My inspiration for this character stems from the type of patient which every GP will be aware of: she’s 84, she has hypertension and type 2 diabetes, and has intermittent flares of osteoarthritis pain in both her hips. Most significantly, she recently lost Brian, her husband of 62 years.

Joining up care for older people with frailty

Across the UK, innovative collaborations between GPs and specialist geriatricians are paving the way to better care for older people with frailty

A new joint report from the Royal College of GPs and the British Geriatrics Society has been published today, showcasing how GPs and geriatricians are collaborating to design and lead innovative schemes to improve the provision of integrated care for older people with frailty.

Advancements in medicine are a great success story, and as a result our patients are living longer, but they are also increasingly living with multiple, long term conditions and that brings a number of challenges for general practice and the wider NHS.

Older patients make up the majority of those attending GP surgeries and acute hospitals so getting the right combinations of care in the right place and at the right time is crucial to avert avoidable admissions and delayed discharge from hospital.

Making today’s healthcare services Fit for Frailty

Andy Clegg is a Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Academic Unit of Elderly Care and Rehabilitation, and Honorary Consultant Geriatrician, at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

In this blog, he talks about Fit for Frailty Part 2, a new guidance document being launched by the BGS on Wednesday 14th January.

Fit for Frailty Part 2 has been written by the BGS and RCGP in association with Age UK, on developing, commissioning and managing services for people living with frailty. The guidance is aimed at those working with and commissioning services for older people with frailty, particularly GPs, geriatricians, health and social care managers and commissioners.