Page last updated: 25-SEP-2007
Older People
Statistical Publication Notice
25 September 2007
INTRODUCTION
This report contains information on the care needs and dependency of older people in a range of care settings (e.g. care homes, long stay care of the elderly hospitals and Psychiatry of Old Age hospitals).
The information is collected from hospitals using a structured questionnaire called Scottish Health Resource Utilisation Groups (SHRUGs). Information is collected by administering the questionnaire to care staff who know the patients well. This is done through a face-to-face interview.
A similar tool called Scottish Care Resource Utilisation Groups (SCRUGs) is used to collect information on residents in care homes.
The report provides trend information over time and also comparisons between the dependencies of older people in the different care settings.
The report also contains information relating to the Single Shared Assessment – Indicator of Relative Need (SSA-IoRN). The SSA-IoRN enables clients receiving services in the community to be classified into groups with similar levels of relative need.
KEY POINTS
A difference in general care needs exists between the NHS long stay care of the elderly and care homes. An illustration of this is that 45% of older people in hospital wards had a need for special care as defined by the SHRUGs questionnaire; for care homes the figure was 15%.
A substantially higher percentage of hospital patients awaiting placement fell into the lowest dependency group compared to those not awaiting placement.
The proportion of hospital patients classified within the highest dependency group has increased from 24% in the year ending March 2002 to 35% in the period between May 2006 and July 2007.
The percentage of patients with needs for special care/and or clinically complex treatments has increased from 34% year ending March 2002 to 49% in the period between May 2006 and July 2007.
INTERPRETATION
It is important to note that the SHRUGs data represent a ‘snapshot’ of the position at a certain point in time. Because data are recorded at different times during the year in different hospitals, comparisons of data between NHS Boards should be made with caution.
In some cases the percentages presented in the report are based on small numbers and again comparisons should be treated with caution.
DETAILED FINDINGS
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Among individual NHS Boards the proportions of patients with needs for special care and/or clinically complex treatments as defined by SHRUGs varied from 12% to 66%.
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The proportion of patients classed as being of high dependency among individual health boards varied from 4% to 69%.
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Nearly half (49%) of patients across Scotland had a need for special care or clinically complex treatments.
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In the period between May 2006 and July 2007, 53% of all SHRUGs patients were classed as being of high dependency, the same as in the previous data collection period.
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GLOSSARY:
Scottish Health Resource Utilisation Groups (SHRUGs)
SHRUGs is a method of allocating hospital patients to resource utilisation groups, and is based upon measurement of need for care and dependency. For the SHRUGs method currently applied in hospitals, care needs are described in terms of needs for special care, clinically complex treatments and behavioural difficulties. Dependency is described in terms of eating, use of the lavatory and transferring position.
Scottish Care Resource Utilisation Groups (SCRUGs)
SCRUGs uses a similar approach to SHRUGs and is the tool that is used to measure the dependency and needs of residents in Care Homes.
Awaiting Placement
The definition for awaiting placement for SHRUGs over the past few years has been "residents who are awaiting placement to supported accommodation, e.g. care homes".
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PRE-RELEASE ACCESS TO THIS PUBLICATION WAS GIVEN TO:
The Scottish Executive Health Department
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HISTORY OF THIS PUBLICATION:
Last Published: 29 September 2006
Next Due: 30 September 2008
Data Available Since: The first report was published in 1998 and paper copies are available from ISD on request.
Kathy McGregor
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