A Growing Crisis: How Will We Protect Our Ageing Population?

The Challenge:

• £18,913 average acute hospital cost per person in the last year of life often not aligned to their wishes

  Citation: King’s College London / NIHR evidence briefing

• 28.8% of adult acute hospital inpatients died within 12 months

  Citation: Clark et al., Palliative Medicine, 2014

• 12.7 million people in the UK were aged 65 or over in 2022
  That was around 19% of the population.

• By 2072, this is projected to rise to 22.1 million people, or 27% of the population.

  Citation: House of Commons Library / ONS population projections

• 30.5 million hospital days followed emergency admissions

• 31% of these bed-days, around 9.5 million, involved people in their last year of life.

  Citation: Pring et al., BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care, 2024

My Emergency Plan: A Smarter, More Compassionate Approach

• Early Evidence showed >70% reduction in hospital admissions proactively fully aligned with patient wishes

  • Fewer Ambulance Callouts – Ensures patients receive appropriate care at home instead of emergency callouts, freeing them up for others.

  • Supports NHS Workforce – Reduces burnout among front-line staff by minimising vulnerable patients admissions that could be avoided.

  • Community-Based Investment – A proportion of the significant cost savings could be redirected into upstream services including community nurses, general practice, palliative care teams, hospices, and rapid response services.

  • Pioneering Change – Early adopters of My Emergency Plan set the standard for sustainable, patient-centred emergency care.

• Run a PSR-compatible pilot (100–300 residents, 8–12 weeks) with independent academic evaluation. Core metrics: usable-plan rate, one-page robust plans, avoidable admissions, 999/ED use, place of death, staff/family confidence, MCA/safeguarding, frontline access.