East Surrey Hospital discusses hot topics

Local GPs and councillors with an interest in health, were invited to the hospital by the consultants that specialise in caring for the elderly, to hear about the breadth of their expertise and their plans for the future of their services.

This was the first in a series of Hot Topic events to talk about the services that are close to people’s hearts, and to discuss if they are meeting the needs of the community.

Wednesday’s event focused on treating the complex needs of elderly and frail patients. The doctors talked about: their plans to work in the community with GPs to help older people access the care they need in the most efficient way; their stroke services; and the demands on their ortho-geriatrics team in the winter, when they can have up to 50 elderly patients with broken hips in the hospital.

Dr Ben Mearns, Clinical Lead for elderly care said: “I was aware that people in our community might not know about the way we have developed our care for the elderly. We have a fantastic team of progressive doctors that are expanding and changing their services to meet the demands, and the expectations, of our growing elderly population, and I want our key community contacts to tell people about this.

He added: “A large proportion of our emergency admissions are elderly and frail patients. It is our priority to get our patients well again as quickly as possible so they can go home, and our evidence shows that if our elderly patients are treated by our specialist geriatricians and nurses from the moment they are admitted, they get better more quickly and have a better experience.”

The next Hot Topic event is likely to be on Emergency Care and in the New Year. Any councillors or GPs that would like to attend should email [email protected]

Report contributed by East Surrey Hospital,