06 July 2007
Soaring dementia levels are being ignored by health and social services across England: 'swept under the carpet' in the way cancer was in the 1950s, a senior MP and auditors warned this week.
Edward Leigh, chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, said the illness, which affects 560,000 people in England, is often poorly diagnosed, leaving patients without essential care or support.
Leigh called for an urgent rethink over the provision of dementia services following a National Audit Office report, published on July 4, which warned that the number of patients could rise by as much as a third as the UK's population ages.
Alarmingly, auditors discovered an NHS and government ignorant of the extent of the problem, with few staff able to diagnose and manage the condition effectively.
'Steeply rising' dementia rates are already prevalent across England, the NAO report notes, but 'dementia has not received the priority status from the Department [of Health], the NHS or social care that it deserves'.
A widespread but misplaced belief that little can be done about it fuels the institutional malaise, the NAO also found.
Dementia costs the economy £14.3bn a year, including direct costs to the NHS and social care of £3.3bn. Yet two thirds of patients are treated in the community by around 476,000 informal carers – mainly family members – who need more support than is available. As a result, Leigh said, many 'end up unnecessarily in care homes or hospital beds'.
Only a third of GPs were confident of effectively managing the disease, thereby shunting costs on to an NHS that later deals with inpatients exhibiting advanced forms of the condition.
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