emergency care

Over the decades, as the principles of comprehensive geriatric assessment have been established, there have been attempts to apply its principles to settings other than acute hospital medical wards or the general community-dwelling older population, for example, to other settings where older people with infirmity are found. The purpose of this paper is to describe and reflect upon the application of and evidence for comprehensive geriatric assessment in these new settings and give some advice to clinicians about how to optimise their contributions to these processes.

Oxygen is one of the most widely used drugs. It is important to recognise that oxygen administration carries risks as well as benefits. While adequate oxygen saturation of arterial blood is an important factor in tissue oxygen delivery, oxygen administration to patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease can lead to decompensated type II respiratory failure. In this debate, Dr Lavery makes the case that high concentration oxygen should be given to all patients treated in an ambulance, while Professor Corris argues against this position.