How can standards in geriatric health care be raised? One way is to examine the examples of good practice that exist and identify elements that can be generalised to health services globally. Much of the qualitative information already mentioned, along with several documents focusing specifically on good practice, reports positive comments made by older people and their carers about care received (see box). Such comments shed light on elements of service provision that allow older people to feel that they are retaining their dignity and autonomy. The feedback shows that information provision and the quality of interactions between staff and patients are key issues. They are key, too, in the findings of research into good practice in acute hospitals in England.

Positive comments of older service users and their carers:

• “My consultant was excellent. He came in on a Saturday to do an operation which had been cancelled on Friday”
• “The ward was spotless; the staff were caring and attentive”
• “The doctors and the surgeon who performed the operation were caring and took time to explain the details to me and her in full”
• “I thought it was lovely how they discussed and told you everything, and the consultant drew a diagram to show me exactly what they were trying to do—sat on the end of the bed”
• “What I like—this is good—they said, 'What do you like to be called?’