BRITAIN: 5,000 Elderly 'Killed Each Year' by Lack of Care Beds

LONDON (The Telegraph), June 25, 2006: Thousands of elderly National Health Service patients are dying because they are denied intensive care treatment after surgery, a study has found. A six-year survey of four million operations found that 85 per cent of the most vulnerable patients do not get the intensive care that could save their lives or prevent serious complications. As a result, it is estimated that up to 5,000 frail and elderly patients die each year because they are not put in intensive care beds for monitoring after their operations. By Beezy Marsh and Michael Day