Hospitals found to be discriminating against over 50s

Recent research published in the British Medical Journal has found severe discrepancies between treatments offered for general medical conditions such as heart disease and diabetes and those more common to older patients such as osteoarthritis, osteoporosis hearing problems, cataracts and depression.

These worrying results are based on an in-depth study based on questionnaires and interviews with 8,688 people. A list of expectations was drawn up of treatments for 13 conditions including heart disease, stroke, depression, arthritis and osteoporosis. Alarmingly, only in 62% of cases was proper treatment and care given to patients - 11,900 out of a total of 19,000 opportunities.

Many older arthritis sufferers felt that they were not taken seriously by GPs. This kind of discrimination is likely to be due to the rewards system for GPs working against these conditions common to older people.

Spokespersons from both Help the Aged and Age Concern voiced their disquiet over such obvious examples of ageism in our society. Kate Joplin who is head of public affairs at Help the Aged commented on the growing predominance of over 50s in our society and stressed the need to put in place anti-ageist legislation to ensure that older people, ie over 50s, over 60s and those who are 70 plus are treated fairly and with respect. If this fails, the quality of life of millions of older people is under threat.

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