Challenge of increasing frailty in aging population

MEDIA RELEASE

For immediate use

18 November 2016

Challenge to deal with increasing frailty in aging population

Doctors and health decision-makers need to get their heads around the idea of increasing frailty within New Zealand’s aging population and plan to deal with this effectively, a conference of senior doctors and dentists has been told.

Hawke’s Bay geriatrician Dr Tim Frendin told delegates at the Annual Conference of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists today that doctors are trained to diagnose and treat disease and to prolong life, and are less comfortable dealing with patients’ increasing frailty as they near the end of their lives.

“This is a real challenge for us to deal with, yet the reality is that frailty drives much of acute demand in our health system,” he says.

“The ultimate paradox of medicine is that it creates old age by allowing us to live longer, but the cost of that is frailty and vulnerability. Prevention of illness and disease postpones but does not stop us from become frail.”

Dr Frendin also talked about the hidden cost of frailty as people become more dependent on health services.

“Health funders and policy-makers need to be taking these things into account if we are to respond effectively to the looming tsunami of frailty that is ahead.”

ENDS

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