NEWS RELEASE FROM THE
REGISTERED NURSING HOME ASSOCIATION
Issued 13th March 2003
NEED TO MAKE SURE GP COVER FOR NURSING HOME PATIENTS DOESN’T FALL THROUGH THE NET
More research is needed into how the medical needs of highly dependent patients in nursing homes can best be met.
The call for a more informed debate comes this evening from the Registered Nursing Home Association (RNHA) as a report is due to appear in tomorrow’s British Medical Journal which draws comparisons between the medical experiences of older people in nursing homes and those living in the community.
The RNHA says many of its members’ nursing homes have found it increasingly difficult to get GP medical cover for their patients without extra payments being asked for by the practices concerned. This is putting an even bigger financial strain on nursing homes whose fees for publicly funded patients are barely covering the cost of the care they provide 24 hours a day.
There is a need, it says, for the Government, doctors’ representatives and nursing homes to work out satisfactory arrangements that will ensure continuity of effective medical cover for patients in Britain’s 5,000 independent and voluntary sector nursing homes.
The urgency is even greater, the RNHA believes, now that the Government has put forward proposals for massive changes in GP contracts and the potential lifting of their obligation to provide 24-hour care to the patients registered with them.
Said RNHA chief executive Frank Ursell: “In some respects, residents in nursing homes are viewed differently from people living in their own homes. Yet they have every right to receive the same quality of primary care as everyone else. It’s vital that they don’t fall through the net with all the changes envisaged in the way NHS primary care is provided.”
He added: “We in the nursing home sector are also concerned that studies such as the one which has taken place in Bristol may lead quite wrongly and unfairly to fingers of accusation being pointed at nursing homes because, for example, it is found that their patients are more likely to be prescribed neuroleptic drugs than patients at home.
“Given that people are in nursing homes precisely because their health is deemed to be significantly poorer in the first place, and given that many nursing homes look after individuals with advanced dementia, it is not exactly a surprising finding that they should be receiving drugs to help alleviate the symptoms of their condition.”
Mr Ursell stressed that most nursing homes look to local GPs to provide medical cover and that it is GPs, not nursing home staff, who prescribe any drugs used. “We need to work closely with GPs and their practice teams to ensure that our patients receive appropriate medical input according to their needs,” he said. “We hope that the needs of nursing homes patients will not be overlooked when the Government and GPs’ representatives finally settle on new contractual arrangements.”
He concluded: “I fear that the BMJ article may prove to be an unfortunate distraction from the real debate about getting the medical cover issue properly sorted out. Simply because one study finds that nursing home patients are prescribed more laxatives than older people living at home, or that they are less likely to have been offered pneumococcal vaccination, does not mean that their nursing care is at fault.
But it may raise broader issues about the nature of the relationship between GPs and nursing home patients and the need for a frank and open debate about the future of that relationship.”
END
Note to editors:
Frank Ursell, RNHA chief executive officer, is available this evening and tomorrow (Friday, 14th March) for interviews on these issues. Tel: 07785 227000 (mobile), 0121-445 1861 (home) or 0121-454 2511 (office)
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