People with long-term conditions ‘coming to harm’ in fragmented NHS, doctors say

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A snapshot survey from the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) found two-thirds of doctors are witnessing poorer care or patient harm linked to disjointed services, and not all cases involve older people.

More than half of 452 physicians surveyed said the number of patients with multiple long-term conditions has increased significantly.

Some 78 per cent often see patients with multiple conditions who would not typically be considered severely frail and who are younger than 80.

Issues reported include breakdowns in communication between teams, medication errors, duplicate investigations, delays in treatment and patients falling through gaps between services.

RCP clinical vice-president Dr Hilary Williams said: “More people are living with multiple long-term conditions, but too often system pressures mean that responsibility for their care becomes fragmented across different teams and services.

“These patients need co-ordinated, holistic care, but managing multiple interacting conditions is fundamentally different from treating a single condition in isolation.

“Services, training and workforce planning must reflect the need for co-ordinated care that treats the whole patient.”