On the ward,elderly patients often quickly lose the ability to look after themselves. So NHS innovators believe a new mantra: keep them out of hospitalIn December, after her third drop in a few months, or Doris Carpenter was admitted to Rochdale infirmary. Carpenter is 84 and lives alone,but she is increasingly unsteady on her feet, and if she falls, and she hasn’t the strength to get up again. Previously,a call to 111 would summon paramedics who could save her back into a chair, but it was increasingly clear she wasn’t coping, and needed more support.
This is not like any customary hospital ward,however. nowadays Carpenter is not in bed but sitting in a chair, dressed in her own clothes, and a fleshy Dan Brown book in front of her. “You don’t feel quite so much … like you’re in hospital,” she says. “Once they know you can move around they end supervising you.Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com