MPs warn of dementia delays
pharmafile | July 3, 2012 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | APPG, Alzheimer's, dementia, government
Patients with dementia are facing huge delays in their diagnosis and treatment according to a group of MPs and peers.
A report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the barriers to tackling diseases such as Alzheimer’s, found that fewer than half of sufferers have a formal diagnosis.
Dementia is thought to affect around 800,000 people in the UK and is on the increase, with the cost to society estimated at £23 billion per year. Yet there are huge variations in access to treatment: in Belfast, for example, 70% of people receive a diagnosis, but in parts of Wales it is less than 40 per cent.
The APPG’s ‘Unlocking diagnosis: the key to improving the lives of people with dementia’ found that a lack of public and GP awareness and the variability of memory services, were major factors in these variations.
Waiting times for these services – an important part of the diagnosis process – vary from a few weeks to more than a year, with an average wait of three months.
The new report advises compulsory accreditation for providers, along with greater investment and better accountability in a bid to raise standards across the board.
Other key recommendations include making rates of diagnosis a priority for public health directors, and improving support for people following a diagnosis. It also calls for a public awareness campaign – something the Department of Health has already said it is planning for the autumn.
The new campaign will focus on early signs of dementia awareness, where to get help and support, and how to make life easier for people with dementia and their families.
“We urgently need to make early diagnosis for people with dementia a priority and memory services are a key part of this,” said APPG chair Baroness Sally Greengross.
“Improving diagnosis rates will mean more people with dementia being able to access support and treatment that can help them and their family achieve the best possible quality of life.”
Pharma will also want dementia to be better diagnosed so that patients can have better acccess to drugs to manage the condition.
Government keen to tackle dementia
UK Prime minister David Cameron has been vocal on the issue, calling dementia a ‘national crisis’ earlier this year and saying it was “a scandal that we as a country haven’t kept pace with it”.
In March the government signalled its intention to boost dementia funding and awareness with its new ‘Challenge on Dementia’ campaign, doubling the research budget to £66 million by 2015.
It also introduced financial rewards from April, making £54 million available to hospitals in England that offer risk assessments on dementia to 90% of over-75s admitted as emergencies.
The Alzheimer’s Society highlights the financial incentive for increasing diagnosis rates: commissioning better memory services to provide early diagnosis and intervention would save £245 million within ten years, it says.
“Many people are being let down by services that are meant to be helping them get a timely dementia diagnosis,” said the charity’s chief executive Jeremy Hughes.
“Through compulsory accreditation and investment in improving memory services we can help drive up rates of diagnosis and enable people with dementia to access the support they need,” he added.
Its own report, ‘Dementia 2012’ , was published three months ago and said three-quarters of people in the UK feel society is not geared up to deal with the disease.
It found that 61% of people diagnosed are left feeling lonely, with 77% anxious or depressed, and nearly half have lost friends to Alzheimer’s.
The charity wants MPs to start by getting in contact with health services and GPs to build up a picture of what is happening at a local level.
Adam Hill
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