Charity calls for action on elderly suffering

Healthcare providers and hospitals should receive a penalty if they leave older people to suffer, Help the Aged has said.

That is the opinion of almost two-thirds of adults (62 per cent), while a suspicion of apathy among healthcare professionals was expressed by 53 per cent who believed older people's pain is dismissed as merely 'old age' by carers, research released on Friday found.

Help the Aged's report claimed that there are currently almost five million older people who are suffering from some degree of pain of discomfort.

As a result of the report's findings, the charity is urging the government to place this issue at the top of its list of priorities, and recommending that assessment and monitoring of support to older people is improved.

It also urged the NHS to educate older people on alleviating pain and discomfort and how to therefore live a more active life.

Director of policy and external relations Paul Cann said: "Despite assumptions to the contrary, pain is not an inevitable part of growing older. It must not be tolerated, either by older people themselves or those responsible for their care."

The poll of more than 1,000 people showed that a large minority were not confident of healthcare professionals' ability to alleviate pain suffered by older people with 47 per cent expressing this view.

Cann added: "Ageism and patchy services mean that all too often, older people are left in harmful, unnecessary and sometimes excruciating pain.   Pain is exhausting – it undermines dignity, changes personality and drastically reduces quality of life. It is also likely to be under-reported."