Description

This paper develops a target that could be used to underpin priority planning of health and social care for an ageing population. Peter Ballingall, a teaching golf professional, tells his pupils that The ball is not the target, the target is the target. For the purpose of striking a golf ball is to get it to the place on the course that will enable the golfer to achieve the primary objective of the game, which is to get round the course in as few strokes as possible. Similarly, the purpose of geriatric medicine is to minimise the number of people needing permanent long-term care, so that beds, that would otherwise be blocked, are available for other patients to use. As in golf, trying to treat older people faster (hit the ball harder) may be a sub-optimal way of using resources. Here we discuss the need for priority setting in health care, and introduce a target that makes explicit the relationships between housing, health education and income, prevention and screening, primary care services, acute hospital treatment, recovery and rehabilitation, community supportive services and long term care.