Home Healthcare News Ageism is endemic in the NHS, a leading doctor has claimed.
Ageism is endemic in the NHS, a leading doctor has claimed.
Writing in this week's British Medical Journal (BMJ), Professor John Young, who is head of the academic unit of elderly care and rehabilitation at St Luke's hospital, Bradford, argues that "decades of health service underfunding have provided an environment in which ageism has flourished. It is endemic".
His comments follow a study published in the same journal, which appeared online last month, that found substantial under-treatment of stroke and mini-stroke (transient ischaemic attack) in patients over the age of 80, despite good evidence that older patients benefit from treatment.
The authors of this study concluded that the older patients were discriminated against.
"Whenever a clinical stone is turned over, ageism is revealed. For example, in cancer services, coronary care units, prevention of vascular disease, and in mental health services," Professor Young writes.
"To this list we must now add the management of transient ischaemic attacks and minor strokes."
He draws attention to previous research which found that doctors treating cardiovascular disease in older people showed that they felt "uncertain about the best and safest clinical practice" and were "unaware of the latest relevant research evidence and were hampered by problems with local services".
"From an older person's perspective this apparently benign form of age discrimination is just as damaging as blatant ageism because older patients are still denied potentially beneficial treatments openly available to younger people," Professor Young said.
He added that education could be an "important corrective" and that "tackling institutionalised age discrimination more broadly in health services will require national leadership, with governments and health services openly acknowledging the presence of ageism".
Responding to the claims, a spokesman for the Department of Health said: "Life expectancy is at a record high, death rates for heart disease, stroke and cancer amongst older people are down and more women over 65 are receiving screening for breast cancer than ever before.
"GPs and consultants are now far less likely to deny a person over 70 treatment because of their age - which can be seen in rates of heart surgery in the over-75s, which have risen from two per cent to 10 per cent.
"However, we must not be complacent and we are aware that there is much left to do, which is why the national director for older people recently launched the second phase of his ten-year plan to improve even further services for older people."
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"Whenever a clinical stone is turned over, ageism is revealed. For example, in cancer services, coronary care units, prevention of vascular disease, and in mental health services," Professor Young writes.
