Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust is grateful to the Times Group for giving us a chance to respond more fully to some of the issues raised relating to the care of elderly patients ('Does doctor's oath apply to the elderly?', March 1).
Staff at Barnet Hospital work very hard to ensure that all patients regardless of their age receive the best care they can provide.
Therefore it is extremely upsetting when their ability and commitment is called into question. Caring for elderly patients is not always cut and dry.
Every patient is different and difficult decisions sometimes have to be made.
But these decisions are always made with the patient's best interests at heart and in discussion with patients and their families.
This can sometimes present wider difficulties.
Patients do not always want the same things as their families and, in some cases, different members of a family do not agree about the best way forward.
While the family's wishes are taken into account, the patient's wish is paramount.
The trust does take the issues raised recently around elderly patients very seriously.
We are constantly striving to improve the care we give by working with the local community health council and by listening to patients and their families.
Elizabeth Heyer, Chief executive Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article