Original title: Facing the inevitable: Rethinking medical education for an ageing population
C N Uwakwem, N Chance · August 2026
The UK's NHS is treating more older patients with multiple long-term illnesses. Trainee doctors often struggle to care for people who cannot be cured. Many trainees learn to order constant medical tests, but this does not always help very frail patients. The authors looked at how training in geriatrics, the branch of medicine focused on older adults, changes how these trainees think about death and care. Working in geriatrics teaches trainees to plan ahead and see frailty clearly. They learn tools like Treatment Escalation Plans and watch senior doctors manage uncertainty. This shows trainees that choosing not to intervene is a valid clinical choice. Better education on dying and frailty can reduce unhelpful tests and ease pressure on the health system.
Imagine you are learning to fix cars. Your training teaches you to replace any part that might be worn, even if the car is old and the engine is failing. Now you are assigned to a shop that only works on vintage cars. There, you learn that some parts are not worth replacing because the car's frame is too fragile, and the owner just wants it to run smoothly for a few more years. You start making decisions based on the car's overall condition and the owner's wishes, not just on what can be fixed. In this paper, the vintage car shop is a geriatric rotation, and the lesson is that sometimes the best care is deciding not to intervene.
For anyone who will one day be old or care for someone who is, this matters because the doctors treating you are trained to investigate and treat everything. This piece argues that exposing trainees to geriatric medicine—where cure is often impossible—teaches them when to stop, which could reduce unnecessary tests and procedures, and make end-of-life care more humane and less stressful for patients and the NHS.
The abstract does not present empirical data or experimental results. As an opinion piece, it reflects the authors' perspective rather than a systematic review or controlled study. It does not quantify the impact of geriatric training on patient outcomes or NHS resource use, nor does it address potential barriers to implementing such training across all IMT programmes.
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Facing the inevitable: Rethinking medical education for an ageing population — C N Uwakwem, N Chance — Future healthcare journal — doi:10.1016/j.fhj.2026.100558
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.