Australia needs to rethink how it keeps sick, elderly people alive in hospitals and stop overtreating them at the end of their lives, the outgoing director of St Vincent’s Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit says.
Bob Wright, AM, a pioneer of intensive care medicine, said older patients are being treated more intensively and expensively than ever before and ”sometimes you wonder whether it’s the right thing”.
Medical and legal experts have backed his call for greater discussion of the issue, warning that politicians and doctors are hamstrung by a system geared to save as many lives as possible.
New figures show over 65s are the most expensive age group to treat in intensive care, costing more than complicated neonatal cases.
Dr Wright, who retired recently from the position he held for 43 years, questioned whether it is worthwhile expending time, energy and money on elderly people who are beyond medical help.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald