Older people are the largest single group of users of the N.H.S. health and social care, but the N.H.S is not, as currently organised, geared to meet their needs. Britain is getting an older Population of Pensioner which has doubled during the last 70 yrs. Persons above 90 will double in the next 25 years and there are now about 12 million pensioners in Great Britain.
Quality in N.H.S is about more than efficiency and clinical excellence, important though those are, it is also about suitability, sensitivity and attitude towards a much-valued service to the values, needs and wishes of the patients. It is only by involving older people and taking account of their experience, contribution, skills, and aspirations that the N.H.S will become the “First Class” for older people that it aspires to be.
Government policy actively encourages consultation with the public and with service users and patients. For the many thousands of people active on behalf of older people, the period we are living through is both exciting and frustrating. Exciting because of a sense of new potential, frustrating because of the slowness of change. The growing dialogue between older people and Government has enhanced awareness of the need for changes in the way that society and service providers should approach the issues of an ageing population. Standards of health and social care are being developed which should provide some welcome immediate benefits, but even more importantly, they will provide the impetus for ongoing change, since major changes do not happen overnight.
The root out Ageism has been considered as first standard out of 8 standards in National Service framework for older people published by the Government on 7th March 2001. Now a regional task force and local implementation team have been established in all regions to try their best to implement all these standards.
The U.K is the 4th richest country in the world, yet it allows large numbers of its older citizens to live in poverty and to be excluded from the everybody’s opportunities of life. Years after the election of a government committed to greater social justice, levels of pensioner poverty have not fallen significantly; they remain unacceptably high. The government has made a commitment to end child poverty by 2020 but inexplicably it has made no such pledge to end the equally scandalous situation of over two million pensioners living in poverty with many older people being pushed to the margins of daily life. Value” and all those Charged with responsibility for improving the Quality of life of their communities.
The 2002 green paper in work and pension simplicity, security and choice, working and saving for retirement, does absolutely nothing to address the challenges facing today’s pensioners. In the N.H.S. hospitals, trusts, general practice surgeries, residential and nursing homes, the older people should be treated based on clinical need, not according to age. Age should not be one of the eligibility criteria by the Social Services Departments during assessment for Social Care.
The General Practitioner and paramedics should not consider old age as a barrier in planning their future care, treatment with waiting lists. The usual remark by general practitioners and specialists in hospitals is “what can you do at your age? You are not a spring chicken” should be vigorously condemned and challenged.
Value” and all those Charged with responsibility for improving the Quality of life of their communities.
9.30 TO 4.30 Monday Wednesday/ Thursday
Our centre co-ordinator: Sravan Kumar or Admin: Bhartiben
The Indian Senior Citizens Centre is a Charity Registered BME Voluntary organisation