King's College London

The visit was part of a UK tour of leading universities and NHS trusts by the delegation to exchange knowledge and processes related to the care of ageing populations. The delegation was led by Professor Hidenori Arai, President of the National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology in Japan, and Professor Liang-Kung Chen, Superintendent of Taipei Municipal Gan-Dau Hospital (Managed by Taipei Veterans General Hospital) in Taiwan.

In the morning, the delegation visited the Older Persons’ Assessment Unit at Guy’s Hospital to learn more about the services provided by Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust that support older people and those with complex medical problems who are having surgery. The session was led by Dr Magda Sbai, Consultant Physician and Geriatrician at Guy’s and St Thomas’. Delegates heard about the work in the Acute Frailty Unit on the Emergency floor at St Thomas’ Hospital, the Hospital@home virtual ward in the community as well as the comprehensive plans for integrated care of older people across South East London from Dr Tania Kalsi, Consultant in geriatric and general internal medicine, who leads this work in the integrated care system.

In the afternoon, the delegation made their way to the Department of Twin Research & Genetic Epidemiology for presentations and discussion with members of the Centre for Ageing Resilience in a Changing Environment (CARICE) at King’s. The session offered a valuable opportunity to share research insights, discuss the challenges of caring for older people and explore potential collaborations between nations.

“It was also interesting to hear about the impact climate change is already having on older people’s health, including on numbers of people needing hospital care in heat waves. We were able to share ideas on some of the innovations we need to make on both sides of the globe,” adds Professor Steves.

Presentations were given by:

• Dr Rebekah Schiff, Consultant Geriatrician and General Physician at Guy's and St Thomas' – ‘Hospital@home, a novel research environment’
• Dr Ming-Yueh Chou, Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology at Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan – ‘Integrated care during acute hospitalisation’
• Dr Jude Partridge, Consultant Geriatrician at Guy’s and St Thomas’ – ‘Implementing shared decision making in perioperative practice’
• Dr Carly Welch, Clinical Senior Lecturer in Experimental Medicine at King’s and Consultant Geriatrician at Guy's and St Thomas' – ‘REsilience Breakthroughs in Older people UNdergoing cancer proceDures (the REBOUND study)’
• Dr Hiroyuki Umegaki, National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology (NCGG) in Obu, Aichi, Japan – ‘Hospitalisation associated complications’
• Dr Mary Ni Lochlainn, NIHR Clinical Lecturer at King’s and Specialist Registrar in Geriatric, Stroke, and General Internal Medicine at Guy’s and St Thomas’ – ‘Targeting the gut microbiome in ageing: the PROMOTe and Hot in Here studies’
• Dr Shosuke Satake, Section of Frailty in the Center for Gerontology and Social Science at the NCGG, Japan – ‘Frailty Clinic in NCGG’

Professor Arai, President of the National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, Japan, who organised the visit to Guy’s and St Thomas’ along with other leading universities of geriatrics in the UK, said: “It was a very exciting tour for the Japanese geriatricians along with Taiwanese and Korean geriatricians to learn various kinds of geriatric care in the UK, such as Hospital at Home, emergency care of older patients, frailty clinic for older patients, shared decision-making process for older patients, and prehabilitation programs for patients with elective surgery. We also exchanged scientific findings in the UK and Asia through the symposium in the afternoon. We obtained new thoughts for the next research plan and future collaboration between the two regions. We will definitely come back to keep our friendship with British geriatricians.”

Professor Chen, Superintendent of Taipei Municipal Gan-Dau Hospital in Taiwan said: “I have observed the evolution of UK healthcare services for older adults over the past two decades, which has significantly influenced Taiwan's healthcare development. Taiwan has successfully implemented the UK model of acute geriatric care as a fundamental component of our healthcare system. Notably, Taiwan's post-acute care services have effectively incorporated experiences from UK intermediate care models, as have our orthogeriatric programs and fracture liaison services.

“Currently, the UK faces the challenge of expanding hospital-at-home care to reduce inpatient service demands. Research from King's and Guy’s and St Thomas’ clearly demonstrates that successful hospital-at-home services require robust community collaboration and optimized care models. These insights will serve as essential components as Taiwan continues to advance its healthcare services for older adults.”