THEY SPEAK SOFTLY, BUT CARRY BIG WALKING STICKS: SURVEY REVEALS WHAT OLDER PEOPLE WANT FROM NHS REFORMS.

DR ROS ALTMANN

DIRECTOR-GENERAL, SAGA

PRESS RELEASE

June 14, 2011.

THEY SPEAK SOFTLY, BUT CARRY BIG WALKING STICKS: SURVEY REVEALS WHAT OLDER PEOPLE WANT FROM NHS REFORMS.

They may speak softly, but they carry big walking sticks – vote-prone older people want their GPs to have more control over their care and treatment, and they want Ministers debating NHS reforms to know it.

Over-50s group Saga commissioned an independent Populus survey of nearly 13,000 older people, and more than half of them – an age group which is far more likely to vote in elections than any other – said they’d be happier if their GPs carried more influence and control over their care and healthcare needs.

“Ministers wrangling over how they deal with NHS reforms need look no further than our attitudinal research: it makes it crystal clear that the people who most want or need reliable care and healthcare – older people – are adamant as to what is required,” said Dr Ros Altmann, Director-General of Saga.

“We surveyed 12,939 over-50s, and it’s clear that over-50s support radical reforms of the NHS. What’s more, our wider understanding of older people says we should have more involvement of UK care professionals as a whole, not just GPs.

“More than half (59%) of over-50s surveyed would be happier if GPs would, in future, have more control over their long-term treatment and healthcare requirements.  This figure increases to 66% among the over-70s, who were most supportive of the changes.  

"A third (33%) of respondents to the Saga Populus poll thought that GPs would do better at finding them the best NHS treatment than the existing Primary Care Trusts (PCTs), and Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs).  

“GPs should be able to prescribe care services for their patients, not just medicines or diagnostics, and also to prescribe effective telehealth or telecare too.

“Yes, GPs should be in charge, but all hospital doctors and GPs should be able to include prescription of care at home services that will ultimately save the NHS huge amounts of money with our ageing population.

"Older people have great faith in their GPs' commitment and ability to get the best possible health outcomes for them from the NHS.

"There is obviously room for a broader role for health professionals other than just GPs. Integration of medical and social care is very important for future success."

Ends

Further information:

Dr. Ros Altmann
Director-General, Saga
ros.altmann@saga.co.uk
www.saga.co.uk

07545 504513
Twitter @SagaRosAltmann

Iain Macauley

im@pressrelations.co.uk

07788 978800

Twitter @Press_Relations

NHS REFORMS: DOCTORS “INNOCENTLY IGNORANT” OF SOCIAL CARE SYSTEM.

DR ROS ALTMANN
DIRECTOR-GENERAL, SAGA

SAGA RESPITE FOR CARERS TRUST
PRESS RELEASE

June 13, 2011

DOCTORS “INNOCENTLY IGNORANT” OF SOCIAL CARE SYSTEM.

NHS doctors and nurses are largely in the dark about how to get post-treatment elderly patients out of hospital beds and into social care, meaning a potentially overwhelming tidal wave of demand for care once medical professionals get to grips with the system.

The lack of clarity amongst doctors over how the UK social care system operates means that thousands of hospital beds are blocked by elderly people who would be better off being cared for at home or in residential care.

“The potential impact of this issue is not just that innocent ignorance exists, but what will happen when medical professionals are educated, and health and social care are finally integrated,” said Dr Ros Altmann, Director-General of over-50s lifestyle organisation Saga, which supports the Saga Respite for Carers Trust.

“It is important that they become better equipped to allow patients to leave hospital with suitable care cover, but Saga is concerned that there is a consequent risk of our care system being overwhelmed.

“In fact, there will come a tipping point when medical professionals understand the massively complex UK social care system, how to get elderly post-treatment people into it, and start to move older infirm people out of hospital beds and into care at a much faster rate.

“It is an element of NHS reform which has been overlooked: medical professionals need to be educated in how the social care system works – given the confusing array of approaches taken by different authorities - but, once they do, then elderly people will flow into the social care system faster and in greater volumes, which risks swamping home carers and residential care – but the upside is this will create a faster flow of NHS acute and elective patients into hospitals because of the increased availability of beds.

“The hospital bed log jam may be unwelcome, but it is convenient to the current capacity of the system. However, once the log jam is cleared, then demands upon different elements of the social care and healthcare systems further downstream will go beyond capacity.

“This is an issue which urgently needs to be factored in to the government’s current re-thinking on NHS reforms as realisation and significance dawns as to just how much work needs to be done on integration of health and social care.

“So frustrated are we at the lack of information about care that we have produced a free public information guide – astonishingly the only single-source guide in the UK – for both families and, indeed, medical professionals, who are trying to get to grips with the care system.”

‘The Saga Guide to Care’ is free and available from 0800 015 2084 or online at www.saga.co.uk/ltc

Ends

Further information:

Dr. Ros Altmann
Director-General, Saga
ros.altmann@saga.co.uk
07545 504513
Twitter @SagaRosAltmann

Iain Macauley
im@pressrelations.co.uk
07788 978800
Twitter @Press_Relations

GOVERNMENT’S FIRST YEAR, THE BONUS YEARS AND BRITAIN’S BORN-AGAIN WORKFORCE.

DR ROS ALTMANN

DIRECTOR-GENERAL, SAGA

PRESS RELEASE

May 10, 2011.

GOVERNMENT’S FIRST YEAR, THE BONUS YEARS AND BRITAIN’S BORN-AGAIN WORKFORCE.

The coalition government can guarantee bonus years beyond its current term if it continues providing bonus years for Britain’s older generations, and gets big buy-in from the most powerful group of voters.

That’s the message from Dr Ros Altmann, Director-General of over-50s lifestyle organisation Saga, who says that a year into government, the coalition has done a brilliant job of ditching the Default Retirement Age – but now she wants to see the same effort put into other proposals and policies affecting older people.

“There’s definitely an improvement for older people on some fronts, but the coalition’s young front-bench frontline team hasn’t quite got the required appreciation and vice-like grip on all the issues, and what the most powerful group of voters – older people, who are twice as likely to vote as younger generations – want and need,” said Dr Altmann.

“They want ‘bonus years’ – years beyond their 60s when they can carry on working part-time and earning. The legislation is there, as is the potential for legal enforcement of questionable employer tactics, but perhaps not quite the focus of support and creativity to ensure current or prospective employers embrace the concept of part-time work as enthusiastically as the born-again workforce.

“So, in my assessment of the government’s first year, my report would be littered with opposites: the government has delivered some brilliant reforms in its first year, but I’ve also scribbled ‘disaster’, ‘unpopular’, ‘too slow’ and ‘no help’ in the comment boxes too.

“The coalition promised it would 'reinvigorate pensions and retirement'. It certainly can’t be accused of pushing pensions into the long grass - it has been a struggle to keep up with the pace of new proposals. But, overall, it has done more to potentially reinvigorate retirement years than pension plans.

“Older people want to work longer – ideally part-time, whether for pleasure, keeping active, lifestyle, stimulation or money – and to enjoy those bonus years.

“I’m being realistic, not negative, when I say the real downers are around women’s state pension age - but that is part of a bigger picture of raising pension ages being a necessary policy because of ongoing economic issues. We do welcome public sector pension reforms, but there is a deep concern over the unions’ reactions to even these mild proposals. I’m also concerned about the impact of pensions being linked to CPI, and that rock-bottom interest rates and rising inflation may also cause older people problems.

“My final report comment? It would be ‘must try just a little harder – and respect your elders’,” said Dr Altmann.

Ends

Further information:

Iain Macauley

im@pressrelations.co.uk

07788 978800

Twitter: @Press_Relations

www.saga.co.uk