With ageing, the elderly face issues of overall health and care which requires medical attention predominantly on a regular basis. Such need for medical attention and care, especially in large tertiary care hospital is relegated to the background in the face of other pressing priorities. As a result, elderly patients in such large tertiary care hospitals generally struggle to get the medical attention & care that they require in the face of the large crowd which throngs these facilities. Not getting appropriate medical care, attention and right medication on time means greater systemic affection in NCDs like diabetes, hypertension, cancer affecting multiple organs leading to increased morbidity & mortality with a significant lower quality of life characterized by pain and suffering which are entirely avoidable.

Recognising the ever-growing need for assistance for elderly patients for their timely treatment in tertiary care facilities, HelpAge India in partnership with AIIMS, New Delhi, started an Elder Help Desk in 2014. The overall goal for establishing the help desk was to facilitate high quality and hassle- free access to health services by elderly patients. By 2017-18 nearly 1.3 lakh patients were being provided assistance as compared to 21,000 during its inception in 2014-15.

HelpAge now has Elder Help Desks at AIIMS (Delhi, Rishikesh and Raipur), Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (Chennai), Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (Puducherry) and Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (Lucknow).