Working together is key to community care

Date: 
Saturday, December 12, 2009

By: 
Aisling Hurley

EVERY year 5,000 people over the age of 65 in Kilkenny and Carlow experience a fall. This represents just over a third of the population within that age category. Of these 1,000 go to the Emergency Department of St Luke's General Hospital for treatment. Some 450 are admitted to the hospital, 600 experience fractures and 200 of these are hip fractures. The same group of people experience 320 strokes, 200 suffer from Parkinson's Disease and 1,200 suffer from Dementia. This is according to Dr Emer Ahern, Consultant Geriatrician at St Luke's General Hospital who was speaking at the launch of the Carlow/Kilkenny Care Programme for Older People.