英國NHS體系遭批 被指拋棄老年人

Older people are being “written off” by the NHS and unnecessarily sent to nursing homes where they receive health care that is “probably worse than in prison”, a leading government health adviser has admitted.

英國政府一位健康顧問近日承認，英國國家醫療服務體系（NHS）已經“拋棄了”老年人，毫無必要地把他們送到養老院，但老年人在養老院中所受到的醫療保健服務“可能比在監獄還糟糕”。

Prof David Oliver, the Department of Health’s key adviser on the elderly, said that the NHS was “failing to do basic things for older people”.

英國衛生部老年問題首席顧問、大衛-奧利弗教授說，NHS“沒能保證對老年人的最基本服務”。

He warned there was “endemic evidence of discriminatory attitudes from [NHS] staff”, which was leading to older people “systematically” getting a worse deal in hospitals across England than younger patients.

他提醒說，“有證據表明，某些地區的NHS工作人員對老年人存在歧視”，導致英格蘭地區的老年人比年輕病人在醫院的待遇“成體系地”差得多。

In evidence to a House of Lords Committee, Prof Oliver, the Department of Health’s clinical director for older people services, said that major change was needed.

奧利弗教授也是英國衛生部老年服務臨牀主管。他還告訴英國上議院委員會，需要採取措施改變這一狀況。

Hospitals had failed to adapt to cope with people living longer, and while the NHS had enjoyed “fantastic success” at treating killer diseases, it was “palpably failing” to treat and care for those with long-term conditions, he said.

他說，醫院沒能進行調整，應對人口老齡化。儘管NHS在治療致命疾病方面取得了“巨大的成就”，但“明顯沒能”治療和照顧那些慢性病患者。

A Scottish Borders patient suffered seizures after being denied medication for five days because the ward had run out.

由於病房人滿爲患，蘇格蘭鮑德斯醫院拒絕爲一名癲癇病人進行藥物治療長達五天之久。

In another NHS Borders case, a stillborn baby was wrongly recorded as being alive and the parents sent a first birthday card a year later by the Child Smile oral health initiative. The report said the error was “disturbing” for the family.

來看看NHS體系下鮑德斯醫院的另一個例子。一名死嬰錯誤地被醫院登記爲活着，孩子一歲生辰時，“微笑幼兒”口腔健康機構還給它的父母寄去了一張週歲生日卡片。報道稱，這一錯誤給這個家庭帶來了困擾。

NHS Ayrshire and Arran reported the diagnosis of a lung tumour was delayed until after it was no longer operable, though it was present in an earlier scan.

英國埃爾郡和阿倫島的NHS體系曾報告說，有位肺部腫瘤患者的診斷做出的太遲，以至於已無法進行手術，而在早期掃描中就已經可以看出了。

Another case in the area saw doctors remove a healthy organ from a patient after a GP did not forward scan results.

在另一起案例中，由於一名普通開業醫生沒有轉寄掃描結果，導致醫生摘除了一位病人的健康器官。

Alex Neil, the Health Minister, said boards should learn from “adverse events” to improve patient safety.

英國衛生大臣亞歷克斯-尼爾說，管理者應從“不良事件”中吸取教訓，改善病人的安全問題。