Dementia care an ‘unsustainable burden’ on NHS

A new report, ‘Cutting the Cost’, has found that people with dementia – who occupy a quarter of all hospital beds – cost the NHS hundreds of millions of pounds a year, occupying hospital beds for significantly longer periods than other patients.

The report is published by Alzheimer’s Socity today.

Rebecca Wood, Chief Executive of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, said: “This is a wake-up call for a health system that has failed to take the challenge of dementia seriously. Within a generation 1.4 million people will have dementia, costing our economy £50 billion each year. This will create an unsustainable burden on the NHS, social services and millions of families.

“We must tackle dementia by investing in research to find new preventions, treatments and cures, as well as reforming the way hospitals deal with dementia patients.”