As the NHS celebrates its 70th birthday, technical editor Kate Woodhead RGN, DMS, explores a programme designed to manage the needs of elderly people, which is already revealing better clinical outcomes.
The NHS should be extremely proud of itself and the extraordinary record it has in contributing to our individual longevity. At the inception of the NHS – and we will be celebrating the 70 year anniversary on 5 July 2018 – life expectancy for men was 66 years and for women it was 70. Today we are likely to achieve, on average, lives of 78 and 82 years respectively. As we know, many patients present for care are now in their nineties and are complex patients to look after due to their co-morbidities. However, we also learned from the joint report by Age – UK and the Royal College of Surgeons1 that there is a wide variation across the country to treatment for common surgical conditions.
There is however hope, provided by a significant driver of excellent aged surgical care, delivered by the Proactive care of Older People undergoing Surgery (POPS) programme. POPS is a service being delivered at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust which proactively manages elderly people presenting for surgery by a using multidisciplinary approach, which is showing better clinical outcomes.
Managing the needs of the elderly
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