TY - JOUR T1 - Intermediate care for older people in the UK JF - Clinical Medicine JO - Clin Med SP - 119 LP - 123 DO - 10.7861/clinmedicine.10-2-119 VL - 10 IS - 2 AU - Henry J Woodford AU - James George Y1 - 2010/04/01 UR - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/10/2/119.abstract N2 - Intermediate care (IC) has been government policy for implementation in the UK for almost 10 years. It was hoped that it would help free up acute hospital resources. However, admission rates continue to rise and are rising fastest in those over the age of 75. Many different models of IC have been tried. Typically, outcomes are very similar to traditional hospital care and they tend to be met with high patient satisfaction. Yet there is no evidence that they reduce acute hospital use or that they are cost efficient. Maybe it is time to rethink our national strategy on this issue? ER -