Life - Articles - IFoA comment on Health Ombudsman report on end of life care

 David Hare, Immediate Past President of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA), comments,
 “Clearly, it’s good news that people are living longer, but this is not without its challenges, particularly for health and social care services. In the UK, one-sixth of the population is over 65 and the greatest population increases have been among those 85 and older. Over the last decade, life expectancy has been steadily increasing; however there has not been a similar increase in healthy life expectancy, so how long a person can expect to live with health or social care needs is increasing.

  

 “A male in the UK, aged 65, can expect to live an additional 17.8 years, and he would likely have care needs for 7.4 of those years.

  

 The life expectancy for females aged 65 is 20.4 years and they would likely have care needs for 9.2 years. This means that Health and Social care services are increasingly coming under pressure and this is set to continue. The Government needs to take these changing demographics into account and make sure services are delivered in different ways to adapt to these changes.”