Rt Hon Paul Burstow, Health and care thought leader and former Care Minister chaired the 2015 International Technology Enabled Care Conference. In his opening speech, he said: “There are over a hundred thousand people who in 2048 will have either celebrated their hundredth birthday or who will be celebrating it that year. 2048 is the hundredth birthday of the National Health Service so today, this event and the spending review coming shortly is all about how we ensure the NHS gets to its hundredth birthday and is there to celebrate with the hundred thousand plus centenarians that will be living in this country. “We have another challenge – time is muscle. The facts are very clear. If you are admitted as a frail older person, the admission itself can potentially cause harm. A person over the age of eighty can lose up to five present of their quadriceps power within the first twelve hours of their admission into hospital. So that decision to admit can have real consequences. It can be the difference between that person retaining the capability to stand unaided or indeed be on a pathway which will lead not to them returning to their own home but actually finding themselves in more intensive care and support in future so the focus on time being muscle, the focus on making sure that we manage the flows of patients through the system is an incredibly important challenge and one which is ever more focussing in the NHS minds and indeed Lord Carter who is doing a big efficiency work programme for the acute sector in the NHS has identified that delayed transfer of care patient flow is some of the biggest operational challenges for the national health service.”

• published: 29 Jan 2016
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