A SCATHING report has highlighted alarming gaps in health services for older people and revealed they are being denied the most basic standards of care. RACHEL PALMER reports.

OLDER people are suffering discrimination within every level of the health service, damning new research has revealed.

Age Concern has found patients aged 60 and above are being refused treatments, waiting years for

operations and suffering regular rudeness and abuse, simply because of their age.

Its report, Turning Your Back on Us - Older People and the NHS, found that in some cases the system is failing to provide elderly people with the fundamentals of health care like nourishment, cleanliness and comfort.

Age Concern director general Lady Greengross said: "The Government must act now to halt the spread of the national epidemic of ageism in the NHS.

"Our report presents loudly and clearly the voices of older people who say they feel fobbed off, under-valued and even abused by the NHS because of their age."

Turning Your Back on Us contains frank accounts of older people's experiences and how they have affected their loved ones gleaned through interviews from across the country.

Personal accounts outline explicit discrimination, with patients being told treatments are unavailable to them because of their age, and implicit bias, such as being given a low priority or experiencing poor levels of care.

West Sussex has 187,628 residents over 60, East Sussex 138,612.

Lorraine Hughes, from Brighton, wanted the story of her father's treatment included in the report.

She said he has dealt with the dual discrimination of being elderly and being black.

Lorraine said: "My father is 77 years old. He suffers from angina and Hodgkin's disease and we have just learnt he has cancer.

"On two occasions I have had to take up complaints with his GP surgery because of their shoddy treatment of him. While we appreciate that there are many stresses on doctors, this does not excuse the way my father has been dealt with."

Lorraine started going to the GP with her father to make him feel more at ease. The GP was impatient and spoke to Lorraine as if her father was not there.

They experienced rudeness, insensitivity and

limited explanations of procedures involved with her father's care.

She added: "Doctors have caused him prolonged anxiety and have even contributed to his pain. They have been arrogant where humility was needed and have contributed to his sense of isolation.

"They have failed to recognise that five minutes of real listening, with compassion, would greatly improve his well-being.

"We do know there are good doctors around and so have recently changed to another GP.

"My father has lived and worked in this country for over 50 years. He is a man of integrity and intelligence and someone who doesn't often complain. He tries to laugh with life despite the fact he is always in pain and feels very vulnerable.

"My father's perception is that he is treated as an old fuddy duddy who is past thinking for himself. He feels the health profession believes it is not worth discussing anything with him.

"After a lot of complaining and discussion, his GP practice agreed to address issues of equality in their staff training."

Other claims raised in Turning Your Back On Us include:

l Older people feeling pressured into private care and having to pay for treatment they should have received on the NHS

l Women over 65 not routinely being invited for breast screening, despite 63 per cent of all deaths from breast cancer occurring in women from this age group

l People over 60 being told national guidelines state they can not receive heart transplants

l Being refused services altogether, including referrals to consultants, physiotherapy relief and scans

l Some waiting months for an appointment and years for an operation,

l A lack of dignity in treatment and inappropriate attitudes including rudeness and ageist statements.

Age Concern will use the report's findings to pressure the Government into outlawing age discrimination in the NHS. It claims one in 20 people over 65 has been refused treatment by the NHS.

It wants the Government to recognise ageism exists within the health service, conduct a thorough investigation into discrimination and ensure older people enjoy the same standards of care as other patients.

A spokesman for East Sussex, Brighton and Hove Health Authority said: "We would take very seriously any complaint we receive about discrimination on the basis of age or other personal factors in the NHS locally. We are currently preparing a report on equality.

"While we regret Ms Hughes and her father had cause to raise these concerns with the GP practice, it is encouraging positive steps have subsequently been taken including the practice's agreement to address equality in their staff training and draw up an equality policy.

"We very much welcome Age Concern's work to highlight this issue and give valuable insights into the perceptions of patients, relatives and friends."

Brian Hughes, director of corporate affairs at West Sussex Health Authority, said he would be alarmed if there was discrimination based on age in his organisation's catchment area.

But he said in some cases older people were warned against certain

procedures, like major operations, because of potential stress to their systems.

He said: "I would be unhappy if there was any kind of discrimination based on age.

"The difficulty is helping patients understand the

difference between genuinely being fobbed off and actually being told what risks are attached to medicines or surgery."

Age Concern has received more than 1,000 letters and phone calls from older people talking about their experiences of discrimination. They realised they could make a complaint but feared they might suffer more if they took things further.

Discrimination was experienced from primary care - treatment by local health workers and community medical teams - right through to major teaching hospitals.

Feedback included patients caught up in a culture of "doctors as gods" and becoming too scared to confront them and fear of being struck off a GP's list if they kicked up a fuss.

Lady Greengross added: "All older people should be entitled to top quality care wherever they live on the basis of clinical need.

"The problem lies not only with issues of local or national policy but also with the attitude of health professionals."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.