The ageing of the population will force healthcare institutions to adopt new models of care

In the immediate future, the increasing ageing of the population will force healthcare institutions to adopt new models of care in order to be more efficient and optimise resources. This is one of the main conclusions of the 1st Intermediate Care Conference at the Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu, held today in Sant Boi de Llobregat, with speeches by renowned health experts in this area of ​​care at different healthcare levels.

In the current demographic, social and healthcare context, care for the elderly is becoming increasingly important. Intermediate Care, defined as geriatric care for elderly people with various pathologies or care for people at the end of life, is growing in importance due to the ageing of the population and evidence that traditional care models are no longer sufficient to achieve optimal and efficient healthcare outcomes.

“We are committed to the elderly, they are people to whom we owe everything. Without the intervention of Intermediate Care, people's health will suffer. We are no longer talking about a future challenge: when we talk about geriatrics, we're talking about the present," said Dr Pedro Regalado, director of Intermediate Care at Parc Sanitari SJD, in his welcome address to the conference.

The deployment of Intermediate Care in Catalonia: coordination, networking and recruitment of new professionals

Catalonia is the most advanced autonomous community in Spain in the management of Intermediate Care. It is currently undergoing a transformation that began in 2023 and will involve greater integration of care and a renewal of existing resources, with the main aim of improving geriatric and end-of-life care.

“With this new reorientation, the aim is to give Intermediate Care a true intermediate role: with a focus on the hospital for acute cases but also on the home, the region and the community. It is essential to maintain network coordination with Primary Care, as the first point of contact, and also add preventive activities and measures”, explained Marco Inzitari, Operational Director for the Transformation of Intermediate Care at the Ministry of Health. Inzitari also insisted on the importance of working to attract and retain new professionals in Intermediate Care and increase the use of new technologies in this area.

The situation in the rest of Spain and elsewhere in Europe is very different from Catalonia. In eight Spanish autonomous communities, only 30% of public hospitals have a geriatrics service, while in Andalusia the situation is even worse: no public hospital provides this service. “The development of Intermediate Care in Spain and Europe is very heterogeneous, and probably reflects criteria of historical opportunity rather than planning based on clinical and economic results,” said José Augusto García, General Director of the Consortium of Health and Social of Catalonia and President of the Spanish Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology.

Intermediate Care, a challenge for today

With the theme Intermediate Care: a window open to the future, the conference was organised in four discussion panels where speakers from various healthcare centres in Catalonia and Spain highlighted the importance of continuity of care, which was presented during the conference as a core aspect of Intermediate Care; the involvement of all levels of care; and rehabilitation as a key resource in geriatric care, where the importance of rehabilitation therapies has been highlighted in the treatment of these patients.

Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu was one of the first centres in Catalonia to incorporate the Intermediate Care model, taking over the socio-health services of the Esplugues de Llobregat Intermediate Care Hospital, among other initiatives.