BMA in NI

When will it be accepted that personal care is health care? Scotland accepted the reccomendations of the 1999 Royal Commission ( With Respect to Old Age) while Mr Blair's government continued to empty pensioners purses and ignored its findings.


BMA Northern Ireland supports free personal and nursing care for patients.

The New Yorker

An entertaining article from a recent publication

The Way We Age Now
Medicine has increased the ranks of the elderly. Can it make old age any easier?

caregiving in Nova Scotia

Caregivers strategy being planned by the Dept of Health for the next 10 years

Family values: more and more Nova Scotians are looking after aging family members at home

Avandia

The news isn't good from this metaanalysis published in last weeks NEJM

Effect of Rosiglitazone on the Risk of Myocardial Infarction and Death from Cardiovascular Causes

Home Care cap removed in Alberta

The cap on individual Home Care has been removed after 15 years at the same level

Province ends freeze on funding for home care

LTC in Quebec

A commentary on the 2100 proposed bed closures in Montreal from Dr Brian Gore, medical director at Maimonides Geriatric Centre in Montreal.

Health care for seniors must become a Quebec priority

new nursing positions in Ontario's LTC sector

1,200 more nurses for long-term care

euthanasia in Holland

An article from todays NEJM. Euthanasia and physician assisted suicide declined during the study period , possibly due to increased use of other end of life measures such as palliative sedation.

End-of-Life Practices in the Netherlands under the Euthanasia Act

dignified care of older people

less blame, a whole systems approach and better medical care

(4) Major change needed to achieve dignified care for older people

PPIs and pneumonia

A new study by Dr Gau and colleageus in Ohio found no significant difference in risk between hospitalized patients treated with PPIs and those that were non-users

AGS: Proton Pump Inhibitors Don't Add Pneumonia Risk to Older Adults

zoledronic acid

how did the ethics board approve a placebo in this study? Anyway a 70% decrease in vertebral fractures is impressive over 3 years and , for a change, resource-light for those of us working in LTC

Once-Yearly Zoledronic Acid for Treatment of Postmenopausal Osteoporosis

drug burden

An interesting study in Archives that links drug burden with poorer physical and cognitive performance in older patients. The chief offenders were sedatives and anticholinergic drugs. See abstract below


A Drug Burden Index to Define the Functional Burden of Medications in Older People