How will primary care manage the growing older population?

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Older people

How will primary care manage the growing older population?

11 September 2024

Ngaire Kerse

Wednesday 11 September 2024, 12:35 AM

It is important to enable older people to stay living in their own homes [Image: CDC on Unsplash]

Specialist GP Ngaire Kerse looks at the capacity for primary care to manage older people well, and discusses some innovations that might be helpful in this area

Key points, Healthcare services for older people are fragmented and difficult to access. The ageing demographic is just ramping up and budgets are depleted. I, Pract Green w Pale Yellow

General Practice

References

1. Miskelly P, Kerse N, Wiles J. Joining-the-dots: caring for patients in advanced age. Quality In Ageing and Older Adults 2020;21(1):15–27.

2. Butler SM. Caring for an aging US population – the good news and the bad news. JAMA Health Forum 2024;5(5):e241893.

3. Well Foundation. Kare Project Pilot. 30 June 2021.

4. Robinson TE, Boyd ML, North D, et al. Proactive primary care model for frail older people in New Zealand delays aged-residential care: A quasi-experiment. J Am Geriatr Soc 2021;69(6):1617–26.

5. North D. Caring for frail elderly in general practice – getting ahead of the wave [presentation]. Rotorua GPCME, 7 June 2024.

How to Treat

+How to treat

For older people and frail people, the long-term benefit of medicines reduces and the potential for harm from adverse effects increases. When the benefit–risk balance changes in this way, medicine review and optimisation are important to simplify the therapeutic regimen, reduce inappropriate medicines and minimise risks. In this article, pharmacist prescriber Linda Bryant uses two case studies to illustrate important considerations during medicine reviews

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