Steps to help care homes improve the way they manage their residents’ medicines and provide them with a better quality of life have been published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
NICE has also produced a series of practical statements to help the NHS and relevant community settings tackle one of the major causes of disability or death in older people-falls.
Professor Gillian Leng, deputy chief executive and director of health and social care at NICE, said: “These two new documents, called quality standards,focus on two specific issues – managing medicines in care homes and falls in older people – where we know inconsistencies exist in the care that people may receive. This can have a detrimental effect on a person’s health and wellbeing, affecting not only their quality of life, but that of their families and carers too.
“The standards contain practical statements to help health and social care providers, practitioners and commissioners assess and improve the quality of care they deliver in key areas. They highlight the need for the health and social care sectors to work together where possible to ensure people receive the best quality care.”
