Speaking as a medical consultant, I would like to support comments about poor detection by doctors of abuse or coercion of the elderly being considered for assisted dying (“Keep role for judges in assisted dying, says former Supreme Court president”, Report, February 12).
The World Health Organization reports around one elderly person in six experiences some form of abuse, including financial. A few years ago, I studied patients in an English trust serving a population of around 250,000, over a quarter of whom were over 65. Where WHO and other data suggested 10,000 people should have been experiencing abuse, the safeguarding register had less than 300 suspected cases (much less than 5 per cent), despite an active team, with extensive outreach and education.
Looking at current data from a sample of rural and urban NHS trusts, the detection rate has not changed and remains well below 5 per cent. This should put the glib assertion that doctors or medical staff will reliably detect coercion or abuse in context.
David Ross
Petworth, West Sussex, UK
