KOCHI: Old age brings with it many difficulties, both physical and emotion, making the elderly people react sensitively to even small mundane matters. It makes it important then that the senior citizens are given right care and attention. The concept of ‘age-friendly hospital’ gains relevance in such a perspective.
The framework for the age-friendly hospital was developed by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) Cochin back in 2016 and was submitted to ‘Care of Elderly’ run by the national office.
It has now issued a circular asking all hospitals to adopt age-friendly concept. By making a hospital age-friendly, we want to see hospitals not just offering discounts and benefits for the aged, but also ensuring physical infrastructure, process of care, communication and services, emotional and behavioural environment, and written hospital policies,” said IMA Age-Friendly Initiative’s Convener Dr Praveen G Pai.
The concept of age-friendly hospital, the pilot project of which was launched at the Renai Medicity, is expected to be adopted across private and public sectors. Once the framework is ready, it will be shared with hospitals in the state and the regional IMAs. Those who meet the required criteria will be certified as ‘Age-Friendly’ hospital.
“The final draft should be ready in five to six months’ time. Each hospital will have to become age-friendly from the front office to the super speciality departments,” added Dr Pai. Magics Ngo is associating with the project.