Care of the Elderly

Medical Directorate
Level 7 (Old Side)
Torbay Hospital
Lowes Bridge
Torquay TQ2 7AA

Tel: 01803 655602
Outpatient booking: 01803 656337

Services

Locally 24% of the population is over 65, compared to a national average of 16%.

Care of the Elderly is a specialist service addressing older people’s health needs.

As well as inpatient care, day treatment is provided which aims to prevent people who have long-term health problems or medical conditions having to be admitted to hospital. Rehabilitation and reablement services are an integral part of the service and the therapists involved work closely with the physicians and nursing staff.

At Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust we have many facilities that may be of assistance to older patients. Some are listed below:

Patient Transport/Hospital Car Service

Information on the Patient Transport/Hospital Car Service.

Torbay Assessment Investigation & Rehabilitation Unit – TAIRU

Mainly Care of the Elderly. Medical investigations, reablement, day case treatments. Clinics for: falls, osteoporosis, stroke & TIA. Parkinsons group.

Blood transfusions

Elderly patients requiring ‘top up’ transfusions with known diagnosis can be managed as a day case in TAIRU.

Hearing aids

Audiology Hearing Care have a walk-in hearing aid repair service – for any patient with an NHS hearing aid needing repair/replacement.

The team in Audiology Hearing Care have created a few short videos to help you make the most of your hearing aids. View the Audiology Hearing Care videos.

Cellulitis treatment

Patients with suspected cellulitis can be seen in the Emergency Department Consultant Clinic.

Hospital-at-home

The Medical Admissions Team or MAT operates a hospital-at-home service. the type of patients that MAT takes on have various medical problems such as DVT, PE, AT, Cellulitis, heart failure and chest infections. MAT does not have a fixed eligibility criteria as each patient is assessed individually and their suitability for hospital-at-home care is a joint decision between the consultant and MAT. They all receive daily visits from the team. The service runs 7 days a week; weekdays, 8:30am to 6pm, and weekends, 9am to 5pm, and covers the Trust’s geographical catchment area (South Devon).

Information for carers

Some elderly people may require a carer to assist them in their day-to-day routine. See carers information or Torbay Carers Service.

We have also prepared some videos to support the many carers in our community. View our carer support videos.

Mental health

Devon Partnership Trust’s Mental Health Services for Older People serves people over 65 years who have organic mental illness – dementias for example – or functional mental health problems which need specialist expertise, such as depression, anxiety disorders, or schizophrenia. For more information, visit Devon Partnership Trust’s website.

Devon Memory Clinics

Memory Clinics are part of the Devon Memory Service. The clinics aim to discover the cause of your memory problem and to provide you with the appropriate information, support and treatment that you need to help you to live well and independently. For more information, visit Devon Partnership Trust’s website.

Support videos

As part of our care and treatment programmes, we have prepared some videos that will support people who are coping with the effects of ageing or who are looking after someone who is growing older. View our videos.