PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Claire J Steves AU - Rebekah Schiff AU - Finbarr C Martin TI - Geriatricians and care homes: perspectives from geriatric medicine departments and primary care trusts AID - 10.7861/clinmedicine.9-6-528 DP - 2009 Dec 01 TA - Clinical Medicine PG - 528--533 VI - 9 IP - 6 4099 - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/9/6/528.short 4100 - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/9/6/528.full SO - Clin Med2009 Dec 01; 9 AB - Older people in care homes are clinically complex and particularly vulnerable to the effects of poor care and poor medicine. They are also a group to whom the NHS seems least committed. Geriatricians have become disengaged over the past two decades, as a result of social policies rather than clinical judgements. In 2000, the Royal College of Physicians, with the Royal College of Nursing and the British Geriatrics Society, issued guidance and recommendations for improving clinical practice. This paper reports progress since then based on results of national surveys of geriatric medicine departments and primary care trusts in England. The results show that important deficiencies persist, though most respondents were in favour of greater specialist involvement. Some suggestions are made for ways to improve the shared care of residents in care homes.