HSJ commission to tackle "the major issue affecting NHS performance"

The Commission on Hospital Care for Frail Older People is chaired by Dame Julie Moore, the chief executive of University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trust, and is in association with independent care provider Serco.

It will produce a scoping report early next year and a full report in autumn next year. It will also publish an updated report in March 2015 to inform debate ahead of the general election in May that year.

• Commission on Hospital Care for Frail Older People: editor’s introduction
• Dame Julie Moore: why this matters
• How to contribute to the commission
• Meet the commissioners
• Care of frail older people: in the commissioners’ words

The commission aims to collect evidence on the care of frail older people and note whether and how it is deteriorating or improving. It will also highlight pressures which are undermining quality and identify and champion solutions.

HSJ is now inviting readers to submit evidence.

Commissioners include Serco Health director of strategic development John Myatt; Jenny Ritchie-Campbell, Macmillan Cancer Support director of cancer services and innovation; and David Oliver, consultant geriatrician and former national clinical director for older people. The two other members are King’s Fund chief economist John Appleby and City University professor of nursing care for older adults Julienne Meyer.

Dame Julie said: “We all know we have an increasingly elderly population. But we have not yet developed sufficient and appropriate care in community settings and older people’s homes to provide the kind of care we would all wish for when we are older.

“As we look ahead and see that in the short term the numbers of elderly people attending acute hospitals will not reduce (and will probably increase), then we all need to learn together ways we can improve the care we provide for our frail elderly.

“This is why I have agreed to chair this commission. Its main aim is to be practically useful. We will focus on how to ensure modern clinical practice can most appropriately meet older people’s needs.”

HSJ editor Alastair McLellan said: “For the first time in its 122-year history, HSJ is launching a commission to report on the major issue affecting the performance of the NHS today, the hospital care of frail older people.

“We urge you to take part – the issue is too important not to have as many minds working on it as possible.”