Minister Admits Failure On Dementia

About 600,000 people afflicted by dementia are being let down by the NHS and local authority social services, a health minister admitted yesterday. Ivan Lewis, minister for care services, said the disease “strikes fear into the hearts of all of us”.

{mosimage}The number of sufferers is set to double over the next 30 years as more people survive into their 80s and 90s. Mr Lewis promised a new strategy to improve dementia services by next summer to increase awareness of the disease, provide earlier diagnosis and better treatment.

The high court will rule on Friday on a challenge to a decision by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence that those suffering from moderate dementia should not have access to a range of drugs on the NHS.

But Mr Lewis said the row over medication was not the main issue. “We know too many families feel the current NHS and social care systems are not meeting their needs. The current system is failing too many dementia sufferers and their carers,” he said when announcing the strategy at St Charles hospital in North Kensington, London.

It was time to lift the disease “out of the shadows”, providing much better information to help people detect the first signs of dementia, and specific training for healthcare staff.

Mr Lewis was supported by Barbara Pointon, whose husband Malcolm, a pianist and composer, suffered from dementia. Some of his final days were documented for the controversial ITV programme, Malcolm and Barbara: Love’s Farewell, which will be screened tomorrow. She said the new strategy was “wonderful”.

Gordon Lishman, director general of Age Concern, said he strongly welcomed the announcement. But Help the Aged’s head of policy, David Sinclair, said the strategy failed to give enough priority to research into prevention and treatment.