Ross D N
Age Ageing. 1976 Aug;5(3):171-5. doi: 10.1093/ageing/5.3.171.
The past decade has seen a great expansion of the day-hospital element in geriatric and psychiatric care, and the merits of such therapeutic agencies have been described quite often--but with little reference to the economic benefit to the community. We have described an enquiry into the true cost of a typical 'intermediate' day hospital and introduced valid comparisons with other methods of caring for the elderly sick or frail: these comparisons inevitably led to the inclusion of the acute general hospital when considering the integrated health and welfare service which we require. The surprising financial implications should be recognized as we enter another era of stringency which must restrict development of the National Health Service.
在过去十年中，老年病护理和精神科护理中的日间医院模式有了很大发展，这类治疗机构的优点也经常被提及——但很少涉及对社区的经济效益。我们描述了一项对典型“中级”日间医院真实成本的调查，并与照顾老年患者或体弱患者的其他方法进行了有效比较：在考虑我们所需的综合健康和福利服务时，这些比较不可避免地涉及到了综合医院。随着我们进入另一个紧缩时代，这必然会限制国民医疗服务体系的发展，我们应该认识到这些令人惊讶的财务影响。
