Experiences of older people in emergency care settings: IMOGEN LYONS and RUTH PATERSON discuss the results of a qualitative study into aspects of emergency care that are important to older people

People over the age of 65 make up about 20 per cent of the population of Scotland (Wood and Bain 2001). They also account for 185,000 emergency hospital admissions a year across the country, a figure that is expected to rise to 397,000 by 2021 (NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (QIS) 2004, Wood and Bain 200