Research on the rationing of care to older patients in Britain and America typically focuses on acute care here I consider `chronic care'as illustrated by `community care' in Britain. Adopting a critical sociological approach to dependency and to the construction of `later life,'I argue that chronic care users constitute a class, and that clinical need has played a pivotal role in its development. As this reflects the allocative rationing of care I call into question, the claim made by the current British government that need can provide a benchmark of age justice.
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