Analyzing Challenges of Population Ageing on Health and Social Care

This report examines the challenges posed by an ageing population on health and social care systems, particularly in the UK. It highlights the increasing strain on healthcare resources due to the rising number of elderly individuals with chronic disorders, leading to higher healthcare costs and potential shortages of healthcare professionals. The report discusses the impact of geriatric syndromes, increased hospital stays, and the need for multidisciplinary care. It also addresses the financial implications and the shift in healthcare priorities, potentially affecting care provisions for the younger population. The analysis supports the argument that population ageing significantly challenges the efficiency and sustainability of health and social care systems, necessitating innovative approaches and technological integration to manage the growing demands effectively. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and resources for further study.

Does population ageing pose
challenges for health and social care
systems?
Supporting paper

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
Task 1- Debate.................................................................................................................................3
Task 2- Supporting Paper.................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSIONS..............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
The ageing population in UK is slowly becoming a great challenge for the health care
system of the country. With the increasing population the healthcare system has to face many
issues in the care providing process. This paper will be discussing about the ill effects of the
increasing elderly population on the health industry of UK. In addition to that this paper will also
provide data and statistics from legit sources that will support the notion that ageing population
is indeed a challenge for the health care system.
Task 1- Debate
The rate of ageing of the UK population is a theme and the health industry is really in the
bulls eye of this particular theme. A very Rejuvenating morning to the audience, today my talk
will be in the favour of the notion that ageing population does pose challenges for the health and
social care system. The age structure of the population of United Kingdom have observed a
major change in the past few years. The population is gaining weightage of the people who are
in their sixties or above that. Advancements in the medical field has increased the longevity of
the lives of people and people now a days are living even beyond their seventies. The WHO
states in its statistics obtained by the Global health and Ageing study that “ the number of
individuals of age 65 or even older are foreseen to outweigh the number of children below the
age of five. This increased number of senior citizens in the country is the main reason of
increased mortality due to infectious diseases and chronic disorders. This has also lead to
making the chronic serious disorders of dementia, cardiovascular disorders, alzheimer and
cancer a very common scenario. So the question that begs to be answered is “ does ageing
population poses a challenge for the health and social care system. The cost that is being
invested by the health care system of UK for the care providing to elderly people is making the
dandle board heavy from its side as compared to the cost invested in health care for the young
population. Its already been a fact that the old age people are more prone to be suffering from
multiple disorders and thus require multidisciplinary treatment. Along with these most of the old
age patients also require social care in the end phase of their lives. All these are referred to as
the geriatric syndrome which can consist of a number of disorders most common of which are
refractive disorder, COPD, dementia, depression, cataracts, loss of hearing, urinary
inconsistency falls, delirium etc. All these disorders require major attention by the health care
system and thus results in divergence of the attention and funds of the system more towards
the care provision to elderly patients. This states the saying of Viroj Tangcharoensathein that “
In a way we are the victim of our own success”. The advancement attained by the health

industry is being utilised for increasing the longevity of the end phase of life rather than utilising
it for stretching the life of the middle phase.
The office of Disease prevention and health promotion have assigned a term of “ baby
boomers” to those who got in their post sixties in 2011. This group of people are gradually
taking up the major portion of the population and more than half of these are anticipated to be
suffering from chronic disorders which had progressed to a level of disability. Researches
conducted by WHO, states that the people's perception that with an increase in the life
expectancy, the number of disability cases due to chronic disorder will decrease as the
advancements in the medical field will not let the chronic disorder to cause deterioration in the
body to the level of disability. But there has been a contrast to this perception as well that
stated that the level of impairment will rise with an increase in the life expectancy. This basically
results in increasing the longevity of the hospital stays of this age group and thus occupying the
the major portion of the health care services. These are resulting in an increase in the strain on
the health industry financially as well as systematically.
Some of the health issue that are anticipated to be the main cause of increasing strain
on the health industry are the chronic disorders of cancer, dementia, increased fall incidences,
diabetes and obesity. All these disorders are predicted to observe a huge rise in the coming
years posing a financial threat to the industry. As all of these disorders are further linked with
one or many such disorders, makes tackling with these disorders an even more tedious task for
the health care industry. The range of challenges for the health sectors are getting further more
wide and the rise in the expenditures for the treatment of these disorders are becoming a
major concern for the health management of the country. The department of health of the
country have to take care of the expenses required for the treatment of the geriatric syndrome,
the funds for long term care required by old patients and also the social care services they
seek. These services take up a major portion of the health care funds provided by the
government and thus causing an imbalance between the healthcare provisions to the young and
elderly people. Due to this shift in the demographic of the elderly people the demand for funds
and resources will keep on increasing and thus will result in shortage of the health care
professionals and care workers for elderly patients. The high prevalence of a single disorder will
grab an undivided attention of the care providers thus less amount of addressing to the co-
morbidities. Huge pressure of the increasing number of aged patients is also resulting in
constricting the diversity of the care providers thus hindering their development as a care
providers and decreasing their efficiency of their care providing. In the nutshell it can be said
that ageing population does have a challenging effect on the health care system of the country

and is affecting the system by overburdening it. It is also affecting the efficiency of the care
providers as it devoid them of the opportunity to explore in the care providing field. For
combating these challenges, the health care system needs to address this issue by
incorporating technology in their health providing system. Also deploying multidisciplinary
approach will help managing such patients effectively and the health care system should
introduce innovative ways in order to accommodate the fluctuating health condition of the
elderly patients.
Thank you
Task 2- Supporting Paper
The standpoint that the group had over the topic Does population ageing pose
challenges for health and social care systems was in the affirmation of the topic that the ageing
population is a disproportionate consumer of the health care resources. Increasing population is
indeed becoming a challenge for the health care department of a country as it is leading to
shortage of the resources as well as staff for efficiently fulfilling the care and health needs of
rest of the population if a nation (Kingston and et.al., 2018).
As per the data provided by the Government office of science, the average of the
population of UK has been increasing since mid 2014s and it is the fist time that the average
age has exceeded the age of 40. This trend is anticipated to continue in such a way that by
2040, every one person in seven will be above the age of 75. This demographic change is
observed not only in UK but all is the scenario observed over the world. The increase in the
number of elderly population to a number which is even more than the young population of the
country has a great impact on the services that have been decided by the government for the
public. As the elderly people are more prone to be suffering from multiple health disorders which
means they are more prone to be experiencing physical inadequacy. Elderly people suffering
from the chronic disorders require assistance in performing daily activities therefore require
social care services that can help them to live their remaining life with ease and comfort (Davies
and et.al., 2020). This is also an adding factor to the funds required for fulfilling the health and
social needs of the the elderly population. When the number of old population will exceed the
number of young population in the country then the health system of the country will be
overburdened by the care needs of this group of population. This will also result in young
population compromising with the health care services they will receive. Therefore the
increasing number of the elderly population not only affects the health care system but also
result in less care service provision to the rest of the population (Wittenberg and et.al., 2019).

As the elderly patients usually suffer from multiple disorders at a time therefore, they
require multidisciplinary or integrated care and require a lot of resources for fulfilling the care
and health needs of the patients. Increase in the population have also resulted in lack of health
care resources with the health care system that means more funds are to be allotted to the
health department by the government. This group who are now in the age range beyond 60's
has been given the term of “baby boomers”. The health process for acute disorders becomes
costly with an increase in the age(Fang and et.al., 2018). The elderly group even after receiving
treatment for a disorder are still likely to get readmitted in the hospital and also are the ones
who are required to be kept in medical observation for the longest time. This is the reason they
are taking up the maximum health care resources of the country. They require extra staff for
taking their care and some might require the nursing staff to be with them 24X7 which has also
resulted in shortage of care staff at the health care setting. Due to increased ageing of the
population there is an increase observed in the requirement of retirement and care homes for
which the healthcare department of the country have to invest an extra amount to the setting up
of more old age care homes. Therefore, it can be said that the elder population of the country is
disproportionately consuming the health care resources which is further resulting in growth in
the demand for health care services.
The UK health security agency also states age being a driver of the health spending. It
also provided statistics that the spent on health care services increases with an increase in the
age. Not only the health care services but the family health services, pharmaceutical services,
capital spending, and the total health spending also observes a hike with the process of ageing.
The UKHSA states the proximity to death as an important factor that is responsible for the
increase in the health expenditure on an individual(Howdon, and Rice, 2018). As per the health
profile of England provided by the UKHSA declares the life expectancy to be 79.6 and 83.2 for
men and women respectively and the population of people above the age of 85 are anticipated
to hit 2 million by 2031. This will increase the burden on the health care system as with the
increase in the number of aged population the number of individuals who require care for
chronic diseases treatment of which are costly. For instance, the cost that NHS has to bear for
treatment of diabetes in approximately 8.8 billion francs and is predicted to further increase by
another million francs by 2035. This elevation in the cost is mainly due to the increase in the
number of people who are more likely to acquire diabetes that is the elderly age group. Along
with this with increasing age, an individual s also more prone to other serious disorders
including cardiovascular disorders like hypertension, mental disorders like dementia, depression

and Alzheimer have also become very among this age group(Pinedo-Villanueva and et.al.,
2019).
CONCLUSIONS
From the above discussion it can be conclude that the ageing population of a country
can be a challenge to the healthcare system of the country as it will lead to shortage of health
resources and also for the shortage of health care professionals for delivering services to the
rest of the population.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Davies, L.E., Spiers, G., Kingston, A., Todd, A., Adamson, J. and Hanratty, B., 2020. Adverse
outcomes of polypharmacy in older people: systematic review of reviews. Journal of the
American Medical Directors Association, 21(2), pp.181-187.
Fang, M., Siden, E., Korol, A., Demestihas, M.A., Sixsmith, J. and Sixsmith, A., 2018. A scoping
review exploration of the intended and unintended consequences of eHeath on older
people: A health equity impact assessment. Human technology, 14(3), p.297.
Howdon, D. and Rice, N., 2018. Health care expenditures, age, proximity to death and
morbidity: Implications for an ageing population. Journal of health economics, 57,
pp.60-74.
Kingston, A., Robinson, L., Booth, H., Knapp, M., Jagger, C. and MODEM project, 2018.
Projections of multi-morbidity in the older population in England to 2035: estimates
from the Population Ageing and Care Simulation (PACSim) model. Age and
ageing, 47(3), pp.374-380.
Pinedo-Villanueva, R., Westbury, L.D., Syddall, H.E., Sanchez-Santos, M.T., Dennison, E.M.,
Robinson, S.M. and Cooper, C., 2019. Health care costs associated with muscle
weakness: a UK population-based estimate. Calcified tissue international, 104(2),
pp.137-144.
Wittenberg, R., Knapp, M., Hu, B., Comas‐Herrera, A., King, D., Rehill, A., Shi, C., Banerjee, S.,
Patel, A., Jagger, C. and Kingston, A., 2019. The costs of dementia in
England. International journal of geriatric psychiatry, 34(7), pp.1095-1103.