A medical consultant has predicted an annual $7.8 million savings to the hospital if elder care is better managed in Bermuda.

And Chuck Peck, from Arthur Andersen, highlighted the absence of quality standards for healthcare workers.

Addressing a special luncheon of the Bermuda Health Alliance at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess this week, Dr. Peck pointed out the benefits for the Island to change to a more integrated system of healthcare for the elderly.

He singled access -- providing transportation for the elderly so that they do not have to drive long distances -- and accountability in caring for the elderly, as two of lacking areas.

"You need a coordinating body for services for the elderly,'' said Dr. Peck.

"We found the elder care facilities here to be very rich, but incredibly fragmented so that the left hand didn't know what the right hand is doing.

"We need quality and regulatory standardisation, accountability for the quality of services and cost effective intervention development.'' Dr. Peck stressed that the importance of these issues will have a major impact on how the elderly fare in the future and he highlighted that there were no quality standards for healthcare workers.

"So if you decide that you want to keep your elderly parent at home, you're going to have to go out and hire somebody. But there is really no where for you to go to find out if that person is a quality person or if that person had a history of abusing their patients or anything like that,'' he said.

"We think it is very important that at least some regulations get put into place so that industry has at least some controls.'' Dr. Peck also held that decreasing the length of time the elderly stay in the hospital will greatly reduce hospital costs.

"We think there can be significant improvements and we think that there will be dollars available for savings from some of the other programmes to put some of these things in place,'' he said.

"What we're recommending is integration and coordination of elder care services on the Island, the development of additional quality rehabilitation services and ongoing support, education not just of patients, but for families and the community, hospital and outpatient services re-designed to make it more elder care and indigent friendly.'' Illustrating his point, Dr. Peck pointed out that physicians were not paid for treating indigents "and these are some of the sickest patients out there''.

"We believe that as you move toward an integrated system for the elderly that within the next couple of years you can save within the hospital alone, $7.8 million,'' he noted.

HEALTH HTH SENIORS SR