Re: the state of the nhs after 10 years of the one eyed nose picker....

In message <fd900k$3oh$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Dr A. N. Walker <anw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes
In article <gaaff3deh8egjs6ldgsa1gerr1p1c61mqn@xxxxxxx>,
abelard <abelard3@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
[quote:]
Two thirds of NHS hospital beds are occupied by the over65s, while the
number of older people in the population is growing such that, by
2050, there will be twice as many Britons aged over 80 as there are
today. [...]

These sorts of statistics are usually quoted as though there
is an inevitable time bomb waiting to explode under the NHS. But a *normal* progression through life is that we spend almost all of it in a state of decent health, then we become ill and die. Most of the money thrown at the hospital beds is spent on our last two weeks. If we all live longer, then there won't be any extra "last two weeks"; but there will be longer when we are not in that terminal stage. So the proportion of terminal people will decrease.

In the end, it's a toss-up between people on average being
more healthy [which is why we live longer] and therefore being less of a burden on the NHS, and unfit people being kept alive and being more of a burden,

As far as the taxpayer is concerned, the most anti-social thing anyone can do is live to a ripe old age. Apart from the drawing of benefits such as the OAP for much longer, anyone over the age of 80 is likely to need some form of social support and if they live past 85 probably intensive daily care. Also, the older someone is the more likely they will end up in a hospital ward (fact). When most people died by the age of 70 there were far fewer people dying in hospital because they were generally struck down by a heart attack or something similarly rapidly lethal. The very old tend to linger. . RH

--
Robert Henderson
Blair Scandal website: http://www.geocities.com/ blairscandal/
Personal website: http://www.anywhere.demon.co.uk
.

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