Dignity Must Be A Prime Focus For The Future Of The NHS, Says Help The Aged, UK

Main Category: Seniors / Aging
Article Date: 02 Jul 2008 - 6:00 PDT

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Responding to the publication this afternoon of health minister Lord Ara Darzi's review into the future of the National Health Service, Paul Cann, Director of Policy at Help the Aged comments:

"It's vital that any reform of the NHS takes into account the needs of its largest and growing population of users - older people.

"The Government recently announced a commitment to focus on preventing ill health in older age, this is a development which Help the Aged welcomes.

"Some of the most vulnerable members of our society rely on the NHS to take care of them. But inequalities persist in access to and quality of healthcare. Despite many nurses and doctors working against the odds to give their best, older people are too often forced to suffer services which fall below the basic standards of care in areas such as nutrition and privacy.

"It is all very well for the Government to promise legal rights and new constitutional arrangements for the NHS - but the real question is whether an older person engaging with the healthcare system can be confident that they will be treated with dignity and respect. Achieving this goal will require much more than paper promises. It will require concerted effort and a determined drive to change the deep-rooted ageist attitudes which underlie the indignity so many older people face."

Notes

Details of Lord Darzi's review are available by visiting http://www.ournhs.nhs.uk

Help the Aged is the charity fighting to free disadvantaged older people in the UK and overseas from poverty, isolation, neglect and ageism. It campaigns to raise public awareness of the issues affecting older people and to bring about policy change. The Charity delivers a range of services: information and advice, home support and community living, including international development work. These are supported by its paid-for services and fundraising activities - which aim to increase funding in the future to respond to the growing unmet needs of disadvantaged older people. Help the Aged also funds vital research into the health issues and experiences of older people to improve the quality of later life.

Help the Aged urgently needs donations and support to help it in the increasingly challenging fight to free disadvantaged older people from poverty, isolation and neglect.

Help the Aged