Time to bring forward NHS anti age discrimination law

12.00.00am GMT Mon 2nd Feb 2009

Welsh Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Minister, Peter Black has pledged his support to Help the Aged's call for legislation banning age discrimination in the NHS to be brought forward.

Mr. Black was speaking in the light of a recent British Geriatrics Society survey of 200 doctors specialising in the treatment of older people which showed that more than one in two of them were worried about how the NHS would treat them in old age. Labour ministers have said that it will take 18 months to get the legislation written.

Mr. Black said:

"These are very disturbing results. In addition to their fears for their own treatment in old age, two out of three of these specialist doctors believe that older people are less likely to have their symptoms properly investigated. An even larger majority said that older people were less likely to get essential treatments.

"Such a state of affairs is unacceptable in a society that calls itself civilised. These are the people who have fought our enemies, built our homes, educated our children, worked in our factories and offices, and tended our sick. Throughout all this they paid taxes and brought up their families.

"Doctors must not be allowed to scale back on the treatment of the elderly. That is why Help the Aged is perfectly right in calling for this legislation to be brought forward. The danger is that on the current timetable the proposed Act of Parliament will be lost in a general election. That is why it needs to be introduced now, not next year."