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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Absence of ageism in access to critical care
— a cross-sectional study | | Author(s) | Ruth E Hubbard, Ronan A Lyons, Ken W Woodhouse |
| Journal title | Age and Ageing, vol 32, no 4, July 2003 |
| Pages | pp 382-387 |
| Keywords | Ill health ; Admission [hospitals] ; Attitudes to the old of general public ; Cross sectional surveys ; Wales. |
| Annotation | Previous studies have shown that the number of critical care beds in the UK is inadequate to meet the needs of the population. In this study, all sick patients in five South Wales Health Authority hospitals were studied every twelfth day for one calendar year. Ten members of the Welsh Intensive Care Society subsequently judged the optimum location of care for each of the 4058 individuals meeting study criteria. This was based on a summary of diagnoses, procedures and physiological/biochemical results, but without access to the patient's age or the type of ward or hospital where the patients were actually treated. These data were analysed to determine whether the likelihood of being treated in the most appropriate setting, based on the consensus decision, was influenced by the patient's age. 2287 patients (56.4%) were being cared for in a general ward, and 1769 in critical care areas. The intensivist panel determined that 1085 (53%) ward based patients were more suitable for care on intensive care or high dependency units, and 220 (12.4%) critical care patients were suitable for ward care. The proportion of those considered to be in an inappropriate ward varied little in different age groups. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-030804208 A |
| Classmark | CH: LD:QKH: TOB: 3KB: 9 |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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