Coronary care and the elderly: experience in a small community hospital

Data were collected over 20 months to assess the effect of the absence of an age-bar on admissions to the coronary care unit, Wairau Hospital, Blenheim. Patients aged 70 or more comprised 31 percent of total admissions and 38 percent of proven infarcts from which their mortality of 29 percent was more than double that of younger patients. The practical implications of these and other findings for our own hospital are discussed.