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Gordon Lishman‚ Director General of Age Concern‚ said:

“It is absolutely disgraceful that over a third of the health care older people need is never actually received.1 These figures show that age discrimination within the NHS is still rife.

“The rewards system for GPs to treat particular conditions has worked - but this hasn’t included health problems older people particularly suffer from like depression‚ falls‚ and vision and hearing problems.2 The system is therefore clearly failing thousands of older people.

“As the main adult users of the health service‚ older people should be at the centre of decisions around service provision but the current NHS was not designed with older people’s needs in mind. Until this is recognised‚ and appropriate staffing and training are put in place to address this‚ the NHS will fail in its mission to put quality at the heart of everything it does.”

Key facts:

• One in six people over 65 say they have been discriminated against in healthcare or health insurance because of their age.
• More than two million older people over the age of 65 in England have symptoms of depression‚ but the vast majority are denied any help
• 3.5 million older people who experience mental health problems do not have satisfactory services or support.
• Falls are a major cause of disability and the leading cause of death from injury in people aged over 75 in the UK

- ENDS -

Notes to editors:

Age Concerns key calls to Government:

• The planned NHS Constitution must be explicitly based on the promotion of human rights and age equality if the NHS is to change to meet the needs of older people in the 21st century.
• The education and training of all healthcare professionals must include the mental health needs of older people.
• The GP contract must be developed to incentivise GPs to identify and treat depression.

1. The BMJ article states that overall‚ only 62% of the care recommended for adults aged 50 or more with serious health conditions is actually received.
2. The researchers of the BMJ paper found that substantially more care was provided for general medical conditions (74%) than for geriatric conditions (57%). Medical conditions that GPs receive extra rewards for dealing with under the Quality and Outcomes Framework of their current contract were attended to better. In 75% of such cases‚ people did get the right treatment‚ but only 58% of correct treatment was received by people with conditions not covered by the contract.

• This week Age Concern has launched its ‘Down But Not Out‘ campaign. The campaign aims to improve the quality of life for older people with depression and address the impact ageist attitudes within the NHS have on preventing those affected getting the treatment they need.
  

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