The quality of medical care that elderly patients receive, particularly those in nursing homes, has been deemed inadequate following a study led by Professor Tom Fahey from the Tayside Centre for General Practice.
Inadequate care takes several different forms: insufficient use of beneficial drugs, poor monitoring of chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes and overuse of inappropriate or unnecessary drugs. For example, nursing home residents are almost three times as likely to receive a laxative as those living at home.
Professor Fahey said, "The results of this study suggest that elderly people in one UK city are receiving inadequate care. We have shown that poor monitoring of disease and unnecessary drug prescribing are more likely to occur in nursing home residents that people living at home."
The study looked at 698 elderly individuals in Bristol, of whom 172 were residents in nursing homes and 526 were living at home. All were aged 65 years or over. The quality of care given to both groups was measured against recognised quality indicators.
The overall standard of care was inadequate when judged against the quality indicators, irrespective of where patients lived, while those living in nursing homes received the poorest care.
Although the study was undertaken in one city, the results may reflect the situation in the UK as a whole, says Professor Fahey. He concludes that more co-ordinated care for elderly patients is needed to avoid these problems.