O apoio à velhice fora dos hospitais

O governo Britânico decidiu importar um esquema de tratamento de pessoas idosas fora dos hospitais, dos EUA.

À partida, o novo esquema que teve por nome "Evercare", vinha dos EUA com resultados apreciáveis: "The Evercare programme was based on a successful scheme in the US, where it cut hospital admissions by up to half".

Só que na Grã-Bretanha, o sucesso parece não ser evidente, conforme afirma um estudo da Universidade de Manchester: "But the British Medical Journal study said it failed to cut admissions, length of stays and death rates".

O líder da investigação, Dr. Martin Rowland, resume assim:

• "the idea of trying to manage cases in the community in this way was unlikely to reduce hospital admissions".
• "Although lessons have been learnt from these initial pilots, such as better ways of identifying high-risk groups, we predict the same outcome from the newly introduced community matron policy as that is based on the same principles as the Evercare advanced primary nurses".
• "Community matrons are likely to be popular with patients and increase access to care, but they are unlikely to reduce hospital admissions unless there is also a more radical system design".

O governo Britânico refere que não é bem assim: "Health minister Rosie Winterton said: "Much has moved on, and continues to do so, since the pilots"".

Estaremos atentos a este tema, até porque o Ministério da Saúde em Portugal, pretende seguir pelo mesmo caminho.