Our services

As a department we look after the older patients in the catchment area of our hospital. Our care is divided between those patients we see as inpatients and those as outpatients.
We have five inpatient wards areas that we currently look after:

  • Abinger ward
  • Holmwood ward
  • IRU ward
  • Smallfield ward
  • Newdigate ward and the orthogeriatric service

We provide general outpatient services which can be face to face or virtual in the following locations:

  • East Surrey Hospital 
  • Crawley Hospital
  • Horsham Hospital

We also provide a range of more specialist services:

  • Parkinson’s Disease – clinics in East Surrey, Crawley and Horsham hospitals
  • Falls – clinic at East Surrey Hospital
  • Rapid access clinic – Pendleton unit – East Surrey Hospital
  • Community ward integration - Crawley, Horsham hospitals
  • Older Persons Advisory Liaison service (OPALS) – for patients under the care of other teams in the hospital

Our team

We have a large team that works with a wide range of other healthcare professionals to meet the needs of older people. There are 12 consultants and two specialist doctors in the team at the moment and a large number of more junior doctors who support them 

The department of medicine for the elderly provides specialist care and advice for patients over the age of 75 and the team offers a holistic approach to the care of older people. We work alongside a consultant psychogeriatrician and a consultant Admiral nurse for those patients who require specialist psychogeriatric or dementia care expertise.

The department also works closely with social services, therapists and community teams to ensure patient rehabilitation and ongoing care are organised once they are discharged from hospital.

Pendleton Unit

At East Surrey Hospital, the rapid access assessment unit for older people is the Pendleton Unit. This is led by Dr Nayeem Khan and Dr Annie Ellis and provides a consultant-led holistic assessment for patients who require a multi-disciplinary assessment for patients. There are dedicated therapists, nurses and a pharmacist who work alongside the team. The Pendleton unit is able to give blood and iron transfusions, provide rapid diagnostic testing and a comprehensive assessment of patients.

The department is actively engaged in teaching and training junior doctors and allied health professionals in the management of complex needs of elderly patients and is the home of the MDTea podcast – a podcasts designed to provide education to everyone who looks after older people.

Parkinson’s disease

  • Specialist clinics in Crawley and East Surrey
  • Once monthly multi-professional clinic in Horsham (including physiotherapy and community Parkinson’s Disease nurse)
  • Twice weekly meeting to discuss patients living with Parkinson’s disease who are admitted to hospital

Falls

Fortnightly specialist falls assessment multi-professional clinic run from the Pendleton unit

General geriatric medicine clinics

We run a range of clinics across the region – in East Surrey, Crawley and Horsham hospitals. Each geriatrician is linked to a primary care network and holds regular meetings with the local GPs to discuss complex cases.

Referrals into the department should be sent via your usual route. We also offer an advice and guidance service.

Should you need urgent advice please ask the switchboard at East Surrey to bleep 919 – this is held by a consultant from 9am-8pm, Monday to Friday and 8am – 5pm at weekends.

Each GP also has a link to the geriatricians via the local PCNs and the geriatrician can attend MDTs and more.

We provide an in-reach service to a number of areas of the hospital. If you work in one of these areas and require support please make a referral to the OPALS team in the Pendleton unit.

As a department we are committed to the delivery of excellent quality training for our workforce. We have weekly in-house teaching, but also Dr Iain Wilkinson leads on the MDTea podcast project – providing high quality free educational resources for anyone involved in working with older people. There are now over 100 episodes and they are available to listen here.