Patient with complex needs - case study

Supporting information

• You’re a foundation year two doctor. 
• You’ve just begun a three-month rotation on an elderly medicine unit. 
• Your patient is Mr Singh, a 75-year-old man with pneumonia. 
• Two years ago, Mr Singh had a left-sided cerebral infarct. This left him with right-sided weakness, dysphasia and some difficulty with swallowing. 
• His wife has cared for him at home since his stroke. 
• This is his second episode of pneumonia in the last six months and it’s thought that these episodes are due to aspiration of food.