The health and wellbeing of elderly hospital patients is being endangered by the increasingly common habit of shifting them from ward to ward, experts are warning.
Moving the elderly and frail from specialist wards heightens the risk of falls or delirium and reduces the likelihood of them receiving geriatric assessments, said journal Age and Ageing.
The practice, known as boarding, is to make way for new admissions.
But Prof Marion McMurdo, co-author of the journal’s article, said: “Every ward move increases length of stay thus exacerbating the very problem boarding attempts to circumvent. Worse still, frequent moves around a hospital are likely increase the risk of infection transmission.”
Co-author and Dundee university colleague Dr Miles Witham, said: “A recent survey of medical staff found that 92% of doctors would refuse to have a relative of theirs boarded out – this hardly inspires confidence in the quality of care.”
Michelle Mitchell, of charity Age UK, said boarding “Makes it more likely older patients will spend longer in hospital and be rapidly readmitted as they have not received the proper care and attention.”