Elderly medicine

Our elderly medicine department specialises in the care of older patients who typically have multiple medical conditions, are on multiple medications and often require specialist support at home or in care homes.

When older patients are acutely unwell and require hospital treatment we care for them as inpatients in Charing Cross, Hammersmith and St Mary’s hospitals, and within rehabilitation facilities in our hospitals and the community. We work closely with other specialties and disciplines and with GPs. We also see older people in a range of outpatient clinics including our general geriatrics, falls, memory and Parkinson’s clinics.

Conditions and treatments

Common problems seen by the department are poor cognition (dementia and delirium), difficulty walking, falls, continence issues and frailty. Our elderly medicine clinics and services include:

• falls clinic
• memory clinic
• general medicine for the elderly outpatients clinic, including frailty and chronic cognitive problems
• Parkinson’s disease clinic
• orthopaedic liaison service
• GI cancer surgical liaison service, with comprehensive geriatric assessment in pre-admission clinics and immediate post-op review
• inpatient rehabilitation
• rehabilitation referrals service
• medical liaison service for patients under old age psychiatry
• consultant input into local care homes
• older person's rapid access clinic (OPRAC) - acute assessment service for older people admitted to hospital, through the older persons' assessment and liaison team (OPAL)

The department has close links with the Community Independence Service (CIS) in the three local boroughs (Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster), and with other community services.

Additional information

Elective placements

We offer elective placements for students currently at school in the UK or abroad. Please email f.miskelly@nhs.net or colin.mitchell2@nhs.net for more information.

Further online resources

• Age UK
• Alzheimer’s Society