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Now round the week medical care for senior citizens

Bindu Shajan Perappadan

Proposal to set up geriatric clinics for the aged in 14 Govt. hospitals across the Capital

NEW DELHI: The "Sunday-ke-Sunday" geriatric care unit that offered medical care to senior citizens in the Capital each Sunday will now no longer remain a weekend chore with the Directorate of Health Services deciding to extend the services round the week.

The decision is expected to ease the pressure off the Sunday clinics for senior citizens. At the same time, the Directorate now also proposes to set up geriatric clinics in 14 of its hospitals across the Capital.

The facility will offer multi-disciplinary medical aid and specialised care for senior citizens. The only hitch in this latest proposal is lack of medical staff for the additional round-the-week medical service.

According to a government publication, the country has nearly eight crore elderly citizens, and with the number expected to grow to 13.7 crores by 2021, the medical facility available to them is not at par with the services offered worldwide.

Speaking about the latest proposal forwarded by the Directorate of Health Services, its Chief Medical Officer (Planning) A.C. Tripathy stated: "We realised that the population which was using our services was finding the six-day gap very taxing. With the rapid increase in population, the Sunday clinics were not able to cater to the patient load that was coming its way, which forced us to think about extending the services through the week and couple it with the routine OPD services. We are training doctors to take care of this specialised population. The country offers post-graduate geriatric care courses only in one university and we have already proposed the need for more such courses to take care of this very vulnerable group."

Coupled with the fast changing family structure including urbanisation and migration, care and welfare of elderly is emerging as a major social challenge. With the increase in the life span of the population, India is only the second country after China to have the world's largest geriatric population. The life expectancy, which was 42 years in 1947, has increased to 65 years now in India.

"Countries world over have rapidly moved ahead in providing better medical facilities to senior citizens, however, India seems to be rather slow with hospitals being merely OPD-geriatric service providers. The special problems of the elderly are best handled within a geriatric unit, which comprises a high proportion of trained geriatricians and nursing staff. Special emphasis on early rehabilitation, adequate accommodationshould also be made part of the medical service module offered to senior citizens," added Dr. Tripathy.

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