Elderly patients often do not receive proper treatment because they are subconsciously ‘written off’ and diagnosed with ‘acopia’, a condition that does not exist, a former Government adviser on the elderly has said.

Professor David Oliver said that subconscious ageism within the NHS often meant the elderly are not correctly diagnosed and instead sent to care homes for treatable illnesses.

One study found serious conditions such as strokes, heart disease and Parkinson’s were being missed. Patients were instead diagnosed with ‘acopia’, which only means ‘failure to cope’.

Patients from the wartime generation typically do not want to “make a fuss”, he said, and so do not demand better care.

“Writing ‘acopia’ is basically saying ‘We’re not going to make a proper diagnosis. There’s that subconscious decision-making,” Professor Oliver, who has recently stepped down as National Clinical Director for Older People, told The Times.

Older people are “sometimes being written off and sent to care homes when they had perfectly treatable problems,” he said.

He added: “It’s easy for someone to come into hospital, they’ve got some dementia, they’re struggling to walk, and if you don’t really say, ‘Right let’s see what we can do to get you back on your feet’ in very short order they’re heading towards a nursing home, and sometimes it needn’t have happened.”

But older patients are often too willing to settle for inadequate care, he said.

“Often older people themselves in this country will be saying, ‘Not at my time of life doctor’, or ‘I don’t want to bother you doctor’.

“With the wartime generation they remember the NHS being founded, and what there was before, and they’re still generationally very grateful for the welfare state, they’re still respectful of professional and authority figures and they don’t generally like to make a fuss.”

He urged doctors to see past common occurrences in old age such as falls and confusion and conduct proper geriatric assessments.